In These Stones Horizons Sing
by Protector-of-Atlantis
Summary: While visiting his brother in Cardiff, Major Lorne discovers the existence of a faction of replicators and a dark secret. Going with a rating of T just to be safe.
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** In These Stones Horizons Sing

**Author:** Protector of Atlantis

**Disclaimer:** Okay, here we go with the usual stuff. 1) I **DO NOT **repeat **DO NOT** own Stargate: Atlantis or Torchwood. I am just a fan of both shows and sometimes I wish I did because there would be some cool stuff goin on in both show. 2) I suck at titles and summaries (see summary below) and so I am just **BORROWING** the quote from the Wales Millennium Centre. In no way am I taking credit for the creation of the title.

**Summary:** While visiting his brother in Cardiff, Major Lorne discovers the existence of a faction of replicators and a dark secret.

**Spoilers:** Nothing too major. At this point, up to Outcast in season 4 of Atlantis. Maybe a few spoilers for Torchwood season 2. Mainly Sleeper but nothing serious or anything.

**Author's Notes:** (And believe me, I'm gonna have a few… quite a few!!) Okay, time for the rants. Only saw one episode before I was hooked! And for some strange reason I thought this idea might make a decent story. Just for the record, I'm new to Torchwood but I **REALLY** love the show. I've only seen two episodes of the first season courtesy of YouTube (Everything Changes and Countrycide.), at least until my copy of season 1 arrives, but I'm completely caught up on the second season. Character wise, Ianto's my favorite. Like the saying goes, "Don't judge a book by its cover." There's more to him than meets the eye, so don't let the suit fool you. Also, I'm not sure where to post this… Stargate Atlantis, Torchwood, or TV Cross Overs. More than likely it needs to go under the latter but crazy ol' me is gonna go with Atlantis for now, since it starts with Atlantis. Another thing, I don't do accents. I mean, the simple things yeah, but I'm not gonna offend someone by trying to type up a sentence with an accent and butcher it. So just imagine that the person with the accent is saying what you are reading. Also not gonna put too much into the whole Jack/Ianto relationship, other than a friendship. It's not that I have anything against the relationship, in fact, I'm all for it. I just don't want to overstep my bounds with the new territory, so maybe in later stories I'll try to expand my depths to include more of a relationship. Don't want to give too much away but, before this story is over, Atlantis WILL fly again!! One last thing, for now anyway, my other story: for details on that please check out my profile. An explanation will be up there soon. And now, on to our feature presentation!! Hopefully you'll enjoy it.

* * *

The first thing he noticed was the setup. Very different from the clubs he was used to visiting back home. However, this wasn't Evan Lorne's first experience with an alien environment. In fact, he was used to dealing with them on a daily basis. Although the sights and sounds that amazed him the most were the ones coming from his home planet of earth. But this wasn't a bad type of amazement this was a good one. He had ranked the sights and sounds of Cardiff among the top ones he has seen, yet he could name a few that topped the list. Taking in the sights of the club before him, Evan didn't even see the younger man slide onto the seat next to him.

"Enjoying yourself?" he asked, grabbing one of the half full glasses in between them. With no reply, the young man tried again. "Evan?" Finally coming out of his daze, Evan just turned to look at him.

"Huh?" Evan just turned to look at his brother, "did you say something?" Trying not to laugh, Drew took a sip and just looked at Evan.

"Don't tell me that you've already you've had enough and only just started your drink." Smiling, Evan took a sip of his own drink.

"Just the jetlag I suppose. Not quite used to this new time zone yet."

"And here I thought you'd be used to jumping around the world by now. With everything you do with the Air Force and all."

"Yeah, but there's still the occasional place that throws me for a loop." In the two years since they've seen each other, Drew had made a few changes in his appearance. It wasn't that he wanted to be apart that long, but with Drew's classes and Evan's assignments in the Air Force, time wasn't really a luxury where their hectic schedules would allow for overlapping time to hang out. Nonetheless it was great to see him again. However, it would take a bit of time for Evan to get used to the few changes Drew had made. His black hair was a bit longer than it used to be with blonde highlights adorning the tips, which really accented Drew's blue eyes. He was also now just as tall as Evan, whereas in the past, Evan had towered over his brother, even though they were only a year apart. Another feature was the neatly trimmed goatee/ mustache combination that he was now sporting. Evan had to admit that this really freaked him out, due to fact that Drew had always looked like their mom and now, all Evan could think about was their mom walking around with a beard. Taking another drink, Evan returned his attention to the club they were in. "This is a great place. What's the name of it again?"

"Aqua. Though it's kinda hard to forget. The name is on the two columns over by the stairs." Drew said, motioning over towards the entrance. "About two months after I first came here, my roommates dragged me here and I've been coming back now and again."

"I can see why," Evan began with a smile, "that blonde over there has eyeing you for the past half hour."

"Actually, bro. She's been checking YOU out! Now, whaddya say we get outta here. I've got one more thing to show you."

"Lead the way, little brother." Evan said, noting the disappointed look on the young girl's face due to his departure. The blue LCD lighting on the staircase made the ascent to the outside a feeling of floating and weightlessness. Outside the cool night air gave Evan a slight chill in his spine and he quickly countered it by zipping his jacket up to his neck. Looking around, he noticed that there weren't any people outside and couldn't help but feel as if he was a character in a horror movie, about to be slaughtered from some creature hidden in the night. After walking in silence for a few minutes, Evan began to wonder where their destination was and decided to add some noise to the environment. "So, where we headed?"

"Roald Dahl Plass. The Millennium Centre looks awesome at night. Don't worry, it's not far." Evan couldn't help but smile at his brother's enthusiasm. They both had an artistic side the stemmed from their mother being an art teacher. Drew had just chosen to pursue those talents more while Evan chose the Air Force. And he had to admit, Drew picked one of the best places in the world to further his artistic talents.

The peaceful night that had began so well, quickly turned to chaos. From out of nowhere, the sound trashcans being impacted pierced the quiet of the night. Instincts kicking in, Evan broke into a run and took off in search of the source of the disturbance, Drew close on his heels. The trek only took about five minutes until the Lorne brothers came to their destination. Upon arrival, they discovered the scene was littered with garbage and damaged trash bins scattered about. About two hundred feet away from them, two men were standing near where the may lay had apparently began. One man stood over six feet tall, dressed in a black leather jacket and jeans, and appeared to be in pursuit of another, smaller, man who was clad in khaki pants and wore a white polo shirt, which was slightly torn. From the dim lighting around, Evan could tell he was battered and bruised. Cautious to approach for fear of not knowing the situation provoking the attack, or the strength of the former or if any weapons were in use, Evan kept his distance.

The smaller of the two was on the ground, trying to escape his attacker. Inching closer, Evan tried to get in range to hear what the two were saying. Surprisingly enough, the loud disturbance hadn't attracted the attention of any others. From out of nowhere, the smaller man pulled a gun on the other man in a last ditch effort to defend himself.

"Stay back!" The man yelled, waving the gun, trying to deter his assailant. His attempt to get to safety was halted as his back hit the bricks of the building behind him. An already unsteady hand began to tremble even more, the grip on the gun also becoming unsteady. The moment the gun was drawn, Evan immediately went into 'military mode'.

"Hey!" He called, trying to diffuse the situation. The taller man turned to gaze at Evan and just smiled, confident even in the fact that he had a gun drawn on him. The quivering victim never took his eyes off of the man who was tormenting him. After ignoring Evan completely, the man began to speak to the cowering person in front of him.

"You're making this a lot harder for the both of us, Adrian." He began. "All I want to know is where the package is."

"I don't… I don't know what you're talking about." Adrian, as he was identified, responded with fear. Wanting to do more than just watch, Evan tried to inch closer but was halted by his brother's grip on his arm.

"Evan, what are doing?"

"I've got to do something, anything!" He said through clenched teeth.

"And get yourself killed in the process? How would you propose I explain that to mom and dad?" Drew asked, the concern for his brother clearly painted on his face. Before anything else could be said shots rang out through the night. Quickly turning back towards the scene the brothers couldn't believe what they were seeing. For where the assaulter's right hand was, there was now a long silver blade. Evan swore that his heart stopped beating because of the thoughts that were running through his mind at that moment. "Where the hell did that guy get that sword thing?"

'No, it can't be.' Evan thought, eyes wide at what he was seeing.

"What the hell are you?" Adrian asked in disbelief, the barrel of his gun still smoking slightly. The only response he got was of the bigger man closing in on him. As he stepped into the light, Adrian fired once again.

This time, Evan heard the sound tiny particles scattering with every shot. Not only that, one of his wounds was clearly visible from the illumination of the street lamp. A medium sized wound, silver in appearance, instantly healed itself and returned to the form of pink flesh. As he gazed in disbelief at what he was seeing, even thought to himself if his heart wasn't beating before, it definitely wasn't beating now. He knew what he was seeing. Thankfully for Evan, Drew didn't observe the wounds healing due to the fact that he had finally gotten out his phone to call for help. That would be that much less to try to explain to him.

"This could have gone a lot easier if you would have just cooperated. But now, it ends." Without hesitation, the towering figure drew back his arm and quickly thrust blade into Adrian's lower torso. Not quite registering what had happened, Adrian slowly glanced down at the blade that penetrated his body, and then looked back up as blood began to pour from his mouth.

"Oh my God!" Drew gasped, looking back to the scene before him. He couldn't believe what was happening and just let his phone drop to the ground, unaware that it had left his hand. Not knowing of anything to say or what else to do, Evan took off at breakneck speed towards the injured man. Turing to once again look at the approaching Evan, the man withdrew the blood soaked blade and gave him another smile before walking off into the dark. If it wasn't for the badly injured, very bloody Adrian, Evan would have given further pursuit, but the wounded man took priority. Kneeling beside him, Evan took off his jacket and balled it up to use as a pillow to comfort Adrian as much as possible.

"Just hang on. Help's on the way." He told him, trying to think of what he could do. As Drew came over by his brother, Evan ripped off his outer shirt, buttons flying everywhere. Tearing off a sleeve, he used it to apply pressure to the wound to try and get the bleeding under control. In the distance, Evan could hear the sirens of the approaching police cars. Looking up to see if he could spot the cars for any signs of hope, he noticed that the gunshots had brought out a few more onlookers before feeling a hand grabbing at his shirt. Glancing down, it appeared that Adrian was trying to say something, but the strain was taking its toll on him. "Don't talk. Help will be here soon. You're gonna be fine." But it was all in vain. With one final breath, the blood that had pooled in Adrian's mouth bubbled before a blank stare overtook the man's face. An anguished look crossed Evan's face with the fact that there was nothing more he could have done.

In the ten minutes that it took for the police to arrive, it seemed like hours had passed. Drew did most of the explaining while Evan just started at the ground in disbelief. He either had the worst of luck or this was a very cruel coincidence that this was happening now. The officer taking their statements had just finished writing down the information when another officer approached him and whispered something to him. Evan looked up to see the paramedics zip up the body bag and load the stretcher into the back of the ambulance. Noticing this, the officer put his hand on Evan's shoulder in a comforting gesture.

"You did what you could. That's all anyone could've asked for." The officer told him. All Evan could do was nod. It wasn't just the death that bothered him. It was _how_ he was killed that bothered him the most. "We appreciate your help, but we'll need you to talk to the _specialists._" Evan couldn't help but notice the officer's sarcasm as he indicated the black SUV with blue lights lining the sides of the windshield that had just pulled up beside the police cars that decorated the area. As the SUV parked, four people, two men and two women, climbed out and took up a position in front of the vehicle. The four split into two teams and headed into two different directions. One team consisted of a man who had what appeared to be a medical kit, accompanied by a woman who appeared to be of Japanese decent and was holding a computer tablet. Those two entered the back of the ambulance to examine the body, Evan had guessed. The other two spoke to the officer who had just finished talking to Evan and Drew.

"Who are these guys?" Evan asked, indicating the SUV and the occupants.

"They're some kind of special ops guys." Drew explained. "From my understanding, they handle the weird cases and the unexplained occurrences."

'Great.' Evan thought. 'How am I gonna get out of this one?' No sooner had Drew finished explaining this to Evan, the man speaking to the officer, who also happened to be wearing a coat that looked like it came from World War II, approached Evan and Drew, taking out a small notepad and a pen.

"Gentlemen, would you mind telling me what happened here?" He asked, barely even looking up at them. Before Evan could try to explain, Drew started up.

"Like we told the officer, my brother and I were walking when we heard this loud crash. We came over and saw these two guys in the middle of it. The guy who died pulled a gun and shot the bigger guy a few times before he had this sword-like thing on his arm that came out of nowhere. Next thing we know, he's gone and the other guy's bleeding to death."

"Uh-huh." The man said while writing down what Drew had just said. Looking up, he began to press for more details. "This bigger guy, what did he look like." Again, it was Drew who spoke.

"He was around six foot five. Black hair. He was wearing jeans, a black leather jacket and a white shirt. He looked to be in his late twenty's or early thirties."

After writing the details down, he looked at Evan. "You're awfully quiet. Is there anything you want to add?"

"No." Evan replied. "It happened the way my brother described it." Evan hoped he would believe what they were saying and not press the matter any further than need be.

"Okay. All I need to do is get your names and we'll be done for now." He said, flipping to a new page in his pad.

"This is Drew Lorne and my name is Evan. Evan Lorne"

"_Major_ Evan Lorne." Drew added, to the unseen annoyance of his brother.

"Major?"

"United States Air Force." Evan filled in.

"Well Major, thank you for your help and cooperation." With that he closed his notepad and turned to rejoin his teammates. Noticing that Evan started to rub his arms from the cold, Drew moved over to his brother.

"Lets get back to my place. You look like you're about to freeze." Drew said, putting is arm around his brothers shoulders.

"Sound's like a plan." Evan responded, putting on a fake smile. Taking off into the night, the twenty-minute walk seemed to take forever. Finally reaching the flat that Drew shared with his schoolmates, Evan went to his bag by the couch and pulled out a jacket and his radio as Drew walked into his room to change clothes. "Are you sure your roommates don't mind me crashing here?"

"Not at all." Drew responded from his room. "They're off visiting family and God only know what else. So by the time they get back, they won't even know you were here."

'Good.' Evan thought. 'The less they know about tonight the better.' Pulling on his jacket, Evan turned his attention to his radio before telling Drew of his plans. "I'm gonna step out on the balcony for a bit to get some air." Not waiting for a reply, he hurriedly stepped on the balcony of the top floor flat and made sure that no one else was outside before switching on his radio.

"This is Major Evan Lorne calling any Air Force ships in orbit, please respond. Repeat, this is Major Lorne calling any ships in orbit."

High above the Earth's surface, the U.S.S. Apollo silently orbited the planet, ready to respond to any threat that may present itself.

"_Repeat this is Major Lorne to any ship in orbit._"

"Major Lorne, this is Colonel Ellis on board the Apollo. We're reading you."

"_Colonel, I'm sorry to bother you but I need to you to relay a message to Atlantis for me."_

"Of course. But I thought you were on leave."

"I am. At least I was. A situation as developed here and it requires immediate attention." After hearing the urgency in the Major's voice, Ellis quickly figured out that something was horribly wrong. 

"Go ahead, Major."

_"The message is to Colonel Sheppard. We have a Replicator loose on Earth. Again."_

* * *

I want to apologize for the redundant use of "the man" earlier. I just didn't want to give too much away. Also, please forgive me for any mistakes in spelling and word arrangement. I'm working on this after work and my brain is pretty much fried after a long day. I'd be honored if anyone has suggestions for me and if they would want to proof read anything for me before I update. Any and all criticisms are welcomed and appreciated! Thanks again, and I'll try to get another chapter up soon! 


	2. Chapter 2

Sorry it's taken a little longer than I expected to get the next chapter up. Just a heads up, not too much going on in this chapter, but I have my reasons for that. If you can just bare with me, hopefully the next chapter will be up a little bit sooner. Enjoy!

* * *

Walking the halls of Atlantis each morning wasn't an unusual occurrence for John Sheppard. He had, in fact, made it a part of his daily routine. Stopping in on the various expedition members to make sure they weren't in danger, or doing anything to endanger the lives of anyone else for that matter. But something felt different this morning. Sheppard had a feeling from deep within telling him that today wasn't going to a usual 'run-of-the-mill' day around Atlantis. He couldn't place it, but he knew something was in works. 

Making his way into the main corridor that lead into gate room, Sheppard paused for a moment at the nearest window to take in the view of the city. For a moment, he regretted it due to the fact that he had to shield his eyes from the reflection of the early morning sun one the ocean, just beginning to make it's way over the horizon. Nonetheless, the view was spectacular; the buildings on the outer piers seemingly glowing from the light that penetrated the many windows that lined the structures. Continuing on his way to the gate room, John noticed that it was business-as-usual for the few personnel scrambling around, doing what they do. Climbing the main stairs into the control room, John acknowledged the greetings he received from the controllers and military personal spaced around the room. Staying true to his path, he crossed the catwalk into Colonel Samantha Carter's office. Before he even entered the office, he could see that she had either had a really long night or a rather early morning. The ponytail braid that was normally seen wasn't in place this morning; the blonde hair that was usually well kept, hung disheveled around her shoulders. With her head propped on her hands, Sam appeared to be in deep thought from the way she was looking down at the computer tablet sitting on her desk. Not wanting to startle her, John knocked lightly on the threshold of the office.

"John." she said with a slight jump, becoming aware of her surroundings once again.

"Morning." He replied coming in to take a seat in front of her. "Early morning?"

"Is it morning already? I guess I lost track of time." She told him, trying to pull her messy hair into a somewhat presentable form. "What can I do for you?"

"I actually stopped by to see if you care to join me for breakfast. Besides," he began, noticing the dark circles under her blue eyes, "it looks like you can use a good cup of coffee. Or three."

"Actually, John, I've got a lot of work to do. So maybe a rein check?"

"Come on, you need the break." He told her, trying to counter her excuse. Then, with a smug look he came up with an idea that couldn't fail. "Besides, I could always get Keller down here to make it a medical order. That always supercedes regular orders right?"

"Fine." Sam said with a smile, "You win." As both she and John stood, she tried to stretch out the kinks that were plaguing her lower back. At the moment when the muscle pains were starting to ease off, the alarm of the Stargate activating began to blare throughout the control room.

"Unscheduled off world activation!"

"Perfect!" John said, the aggravation clearly notable in his voice. "Just when the sound of pancakes was really starting to sound good.

"Guess we'll have to take that rein check after all." Sam told him as they headed into the control room. Pulling her hair into a ponytail, she turned her attention to Chuck, who was closely monitoring the gate activity. "What's going on?"

"It's Midway. They need to speak to both of you." He told them. Chuck then proceeded establish a communication link back with the Midway station. Eager to discover the reason for the days early check in, Sam clicked her earpiece to activate the radio channel.

"Midway Station, this is Colonel Carter. Go ahead."

_"This is Dr. Lee. We have a direct line with the Apollo. They say they have an urgent message for Colonel Sheppard."_

"This is Sheppard, go ahead."

_"Colonel! Good, you're there. We were kinda worried that they'd have to track you down, then we'd have to wait for you to get to the control room and…"_

"Doc!" John interrupted, becoming annoyed with the unnecessary chatter. "You said something about an urgent message?"

_"Oh right, right, right. The message is from Major Lorne."_

"Lorne? He's supposed to be on vacation."

_"Uh, well, he is but apparently he says he believes there is a replicator loose on earth."_

"Excuse me?" John couldn't believe what he was hearing. A replicator? On earth? Another one?! But how? The last two replicators in the universe were taken care of two months ago. Or at least that's what he thought. "A replicator? Is he positive?"

_"Well, we're still connected to earth via the Milky Way gate. We can patch you through to the Apollo."_

"That would be a great idea, doc."

"Okay, just give me a minute to get them." After a moment of silence that seemed to last for hours, Dr. Lee finally returned to the radio. "Alright, go head."

"Apollo, this is Sheppard. Do you read?"

_"Colonel Sheppard, this is Colonel Ellis. We're reading you loud and clear."_

"Please," John begged, "PLEASE tell me this is some kind of joke. That Lorne is playing a sick joke just to get back at me for the pranks I pulled on him."

_"I'm afraid not, John. We've already begun to monitoring reports on the incident at hand."_ Ellis told him._ "We're sending you a data stream now with all the current information and Lorne's eyewitness account of the victim's death."_

"Whoa, wait a minute." Sam started, "Someone was killed?"

_"Unfortunately so. With current information, it's just been the one victim."_ As Ellis finished his report, the laptop next to Sam, John and Chuck began to beep, alerting them to the download of the data stream from the Apollo.

"Colonel Ellis," Sam began, "we'll look over the data to see what we can find out. In the meantime, tell Major Lorne to sit tight and we'll keep him apprised of the situation."

_"Understood."_

"I'll be headed to Earth within the hour." John said before turning to Sam, "I'm taking Ronon with me. He'll come in handy."

_"Good luck. Apollo out."_

As the communication link terminated, the Stargate immediately shutdown. Turning to John, Sam knew that he understood the intensity of the situation, and completely agreed that Ronon should go back to Earth with John. "I'll start going over all the information we received from the Apollo. Also, check with Rodney on the status of the ARG modifications. They may be of some use to you."

"Right." John replied as headed off to begin preparations for the mission. Unsure of what to expect, he really didn't know how exactly the situation would be handled. The last replicator he faced had killed its creator and at least three other men who got in its way. This one had to be stopped at all costs before any more lives were hurt or lost.

* * *

_"Still no new information in the death of a delivery man last night. The victim, twenty-six year old Adrian Thomas brutally assaulted then stabbed in the abdomen.. From what we've been able to ascertain from witnesses, a long, knifelike tool was used. No leads have been found. Reporting for BBC News, this is Katherine Harris."_

With the vivid images from the previous night still fresh in his mind, Evan quickly muted the television, not wanting to hear anymore about the attack. He didn't know what bothered him the most: that a replicator was terrorizing people on earth, or that there wasn't anything he could have done to stop it from killing that innocent man. Actually, he could have done something but Drew was right. Had he tried to stop the attack without the proper weapons, he would be going back home to the States in a body bag. Relaxing farther into the couch he was sitting on, Evan turned his attention to his brother, who was currently sitting at the kitchen table eating his version of breakfast: leftover pizza. Evan couldn't help but smile at Drew while he was sitting there.

'Typical college meal.' He thought to himself. The next sound to fill the now quiet apartment was the ringing of Drew's phone that was sitting next to him on the table.

"It's my roommate, Mike." He told Evan, as he answered. "Hey Mike. What's up?"

_"Not much, I just heard about the attack last night. It's not far from the flat so I decided to check on you. It was awful about what happened."_ Evan couldn't help but hear the other voice due to the loud volume level that Drew kept his phone's earpiece at.

"I know, it was terrible, we were there last night." He told him, standing up and walking towards the sink. Trying to avoid the images that kept repeating in his head, Evan turned his attention to the balcony door, trying to loose himself in the early morning sky over Cardiff. "I was taking Evan to the Millennium Centre when the whole thing happened. We went to check it out and the guy ended up getting stabbed. Evan tried to save him, but he couldn't." Drew lowered his voice when he said the last sentence, not wanting to upset his brother even more.

_"How's he handling it?"_

"As well as can be expected. But there was something weird about the guy that did it though. The other guy got off some shots but it was like the bullets didn't even faze him. Thankfully for Evan, before anymore could be said, there was a loud knock at the door. "Mike, I'm gonna have to call you back. Later." Ending the call, Drew made his way to the door and opened it, not quite expecting the two men that were standing there. One was wearing blue jeans, a light blue button up shirt and a navy jacket. The other was also wearing jeans, but was a darker color, and a black shirt. He also noticed that he was larger than the other man, but that wasn't what made him stand out. The taller man was sporting a number of dreadlocks that were tied into a ponytail. The smaller of the two made him nervous, but this mountain-of-a-man really freaked him out. "Uh, Evan!"

Turning to look, Evan was immediately on his feet and headed to the door. "Colonel, Ronon."

"You know these guys?" Drew asked his brother with a look of disbelief.

"Colonel John Sheppard. Ronon Dex. This is my brother, Andrew. Drew, This is Colonel Sheppard, my CO and Ronon." After the formalities were over, Drew relaxed to an extent.

"I never knew you had a brother, Major." John told him looking at the two, who were now side by side. "But I can see the resemblance."

"Thanks," Drew said with a smile. "So what brings you guys here?"

"We need to talk to your brother." John told him.

"Oh okay." Not exactly catching the hint, Drew just stood there, staring at each one of them, expecting to be included in on the conversation.

"Alone." Ronon added, his normal tone of voice being enough to make Drew back away.

"Right, right. All that classified crap that goes on. I got it." He said as he walked back to the kitchen.

"We can go outside to talk, sir." Evan said, motioning towards the balcony door. Nodding, both John and Ronon followed Evan out the door. After all three were out on the balcony, Evan made sure that it was completely closed, not wanting Drew to hear anything that was said.

"Major, I though you were supposed to be here relaxing, not out looking for trouble." John said, looking around at the Cardiff skyline. He had to admit, the city was marvelous, but not as extravagant as the view of Atlantis.

"Believe me, sir," Evan began, "I didn't plan on finding anything out of the ordinary when I came here. I was just looking forward to catching up with my brother."

"Yeah, he seems like a great kid." John said, leaning around to look back into the apartment at Drew. "So, take us through what happened."

"Well, we had just left this nightclub when Drew wanted to show me the Millennium Centre. On our way there, we heard a loud noise, followed it and found out where it came from. At the scene were two guys, the replicator and the victim. The smaller guy shot the replicator but it didn't damage him that much. He was able to regenerate the wounds, then he changed his arm into a blade and stabbed the guy."

"What happened to the replicator?" Ronon asked while looking over the railing he was leaning on.

"Don't know. He disappeared while I was trying to save that guy." Evan explained. "I should've done more, sir." He added, remorsefully.

"You did the right thing Major. There was nothing else you could've done." John comforted him.

"Any idea what it wanted with that guy?" Ronon asked, moving away from the rail.

"No clue." Evan told them. "So what's the plan, sir?"

"We've got a team waiting on the Apollo armed with ARGs."

"I didn't think they worked on the last replicator you encountered."

"Rodney was able to modify them after our last encounter. We'll only be able to get one or two shots out of them but hopefully it'll be enough." John told him.

"As long as there is only one of them." Ronon added.

"Good point." John noted. "Was that the only one?"

"He was the only one around. Other than the people who showed up when the police arrived."

"Speaking of the police, what did you tell them?" John asked.

"Just my name. Big mouth in there told them the rest. Thankfully, to him it just looked like he pulled a blade from somewhere and not his entire arm changing."

"True."

"Colonel, there's something else."

"Yeah?"

"The police aren't the only ones to worry about." Evan explained. "There were these Special Ops guys there too. Drew said they investigate the weird cases but other than that, he didn't know anything about them."

"Well, we'll deal with them when the time comes." John said. "Let's get going."

"Yes sir. I just need a minute."

"Fair enough." John said before turning to head back inside. But before he opened the door, he turned back to Evan. "I'm surprised he didn't try to eavesdrop on us."

"I think Ronon scared him and I guess he didn't want to do anything to provoke him." Evan said smiling.

"Smart kid." Ronon said with a smile. After opening the door, Evan walked over to Drew, who was now sitting on the couch, flipping through the channels on the TV.

"What's going on?" He asked as he turned the TV off and looked up to his brother.

"We're gonna have to cut our plans short." Evan said, giving Drew a sorrowful look.

"What? Why? And don't give me any of that top secret bull crap." Drew responded, clearly upset by his brother having to leave.

"Okay, you want the truth? Here it is." Evan started, getting the look from John. "The guy last night. He's an escaped terrorist. He's been on the run for over a month. It's just dumb luck that we crossed paths last night." Judging from the silence, Evan couldn't tell is Drew was buying into the story or if he knew he was making it up.

"But what does this have to do with the Air Force?" He finally said. "Shouldn't this be the work of someone more important?"

"Okay, first, that hurt. A LOT" Evan responded to the 'someone more important' remark. "Secondly, he has information that pertains to the Air Force and the less people know, the better. Third, he's a weapons expert. You saw that firsthand last night."

"So that's why you were quite around those Special Ops guy."

"Exactly." Despite that he was grateful that Drew was buying the cover story, he really didn't like lying to his little brother more than he had too.

"Look," John said, coming over and placing a hand on Drew's shoulder, "I know you don't get to see each other that much and that you've had this planned out for a while. But we'll try to take care of this as fast as possible. How ever long it takes to wrap this up, I promise that I'll give that time back to you too."

"Thank you, Colonel." Drew said.

"John." He told him, offering his hand.

"Thank you, John." He said, taking the outstretched hand into his.

"We'll be right outside Major." John told him, as he and Ronon walked out of the room into the hallway.

"I know you're not happy about this." Evan started.

"Damn right!" Drew said, as he looked away, the anger clear in his voice. After taking a breath and calming down, he looked back at Evan, tears beginning to swell up in his eyes. "But it's what you do and I have to accept that." Pulling his brother into a hug, held him tightly, bringing back memories from when he left on his first deployment when he initially joined the Air Force.

"Besides, you heard Colonel Sheppard. The time I loose, I'll get back."

"Yeah." Drew said pulling back and wiping the tears from his eyes.

"Don't worry, you'll be able to pull me into all the great bars before you know it." Drew couldn't help but laugh at Evan's last remark. Nonetheless, Evan was glad that he was able to put a smile on his brother's face before leaving.

"Well, you better get going. That big guy looks like he might not take waiting very lightly."

"Oh, you have no idea." Evan said grabbing his bag and heading for the door. Stopping before he opened, he turned back to give Drew a final, sorrowful look. "Later."

"Bye."

Opening the door, Evan went out and joined John and Ronon out in the hall. John waited until the door was closed before he said anything.

"So," he started, "a terrorist, huh?"

"First thing that came to mind. Didn't think the machine-posing-as-a-human explanation would've worked all that well."

"It's better than what I would've said."

"What would you have told him?" Ronon asked, clearly interested in John's explanation.

"That aliens were attacking." He smiled at Ronon as he just stared blankly back at him. Checking the hallway they were in to make sure no one else was around, John pulled his radio earpiece out of his jacket pocket, placed it in his ear and activated it. "Apollo, this is Sheppard. We're ready."

Within moments, the white glow of the Apollo's transporter enveloped the three men and in a flash they were gone. Inside his apartment, Drew couldn't help but notice the bright light that seemed to appear from nowhere. Opening the door he glanced in both directions that the hallway ran.

"Evan?" He called out, but he didn't receive a reply. Not sure of what to think of the quick departure of his brother and his friends. Closing the door again, he prayed that his brother would be safe and hoped that he would be back soon.

* * *

* * *

Again, sorry not much is going on in this chapter. Things will pick up (hopefully) in the next chapter. Another thing, just give me some time to remeber how to work out the bugs with adding chapters and such. Also, just for the record, this story begins on a Friday night. That'll kinda make a part in the next chapter make a little more sense. Don't wanna give too much away, so that's it. Later. 


	3. Chapter 3

Okay. **First** I want to say I'm sorry that it's taken me a little bit longer to post this next chapter. I've had some job related work to take care of and it took a little longer than I wanted to get it done. **Secondly**, thanks to all of you who have given me feed back and helped me point out my tiny mistakes. Don't know what I'd do with out you. And just to warn you... with everything going on for me right now, work related and other stuff, those little mistakes have more than likely evolved into bigger mistakes. Please pardon my dust while I try to work them out. Another thing, a few of you asked about the "jokes" in the previous chapter. I somewhat worked something in to try and cover that. Hopefully it'll work and you like it. But keep in mind, like everything else, it's not perfect!! **Third**, I know this chapter my be kinda long. I could have ended it in a few different places due to my wording. Sorry about that. I ended it the way I wanted it to end so I apologize if it seems like this two chapters rolled into one. **Fourth**, not to give too much away, but PLEASE before you review, PLEASE read the others notes that I have after the chapter. They somewhat explain some of the reasons behind some of the wordings, descriptions, etc. That is EXTREMELY important to remember when you finish. Also, if you want to get technical, this is my first Torchwood story so please bare with me as I try to properly get the characters somewhat close to their actual personalities. **Finally** (for now), Please enjoy!!

* * *

"Jack! JACK!!" The frantic cries from the passenger seat quickly drew Jack from his thoughts and he noticed that he had come dangerously close to a line of parked cars on the side of the road. Quickly swerving to miss them, he glanced over at Gwen Cooper, who had practically pulled her entire body into the seat and was bracing herself against the dash, fearful that this might be her last mission.

"What?" He asked her with a grin. Slowly, she turned her head to look at him, wide eyed and full of fear. Gwen's expression made Jack's grin turn into a full-fledged smile. Returning his full attention back to the road, he noticed out of the corner of his eye that Gwen had somewhat relaxed, but was still apprehensive of her boss' driving.

"What a glorious day," was the next thing to be said, this time by Owen Harper, "first, a faulty rift monitor sends us on a four hour drive into the middle of nowhere. Come to find out there was nothing there, then another four hour drive back only to be detoured to a murder. And if that wasn't bad enough, Harkness here tries to bloody kill us!"

"Come on guys," Jack began, "where's your sense of excitement?"

"I think I left mine back at that last turn, along with my lunch." Came the voice of Toshiko Sato. Jack glance back in the rear-view mirror and noticed that she was trying straighten herself into the seat then trying to somewhat organize some of the equipment that had become dislodged from their fastenings thanks to Jacks maneuver. "On the other hand," she said with a smile, "that was kind of exhilarating. However I think Owen needs to give Gwen a sedative." Jack couldn't help but laugh at Tosh's remark, noting that Gwen had completely removed her hands from the dash and was now gripping the sides of her seat. 

'Now that's more like it!" He said enthusiastically, indicating Tosh's spirit. Smiling, he concentrated on the trip back to the hub. The last thing he needed was to try and find a replacement for Gwen should he give her a heart attack on the way back. 

The ride back to the Hub was a smooth one and didn't take all that long. Well, longer than he wanted but he was trying to avoid more near death experiences. Once the SUV was back at the Hub and parked, Gwen was the first one out and standing firm on solid ground. From how fast Gwen opened the door, Jack guessed that his driving did require a bit of touching up here and there. Making their way into the Hub through the entrance in the Tourist Information Center, the short elevator ride to the main complex below seemed almost instantaneous. After passing through the giant rolling cog-like door and the gated entrance, each team member went to their respective stations to either put away the unneeded equipment or to gather what they needed for the current investigation. The first thing that Jack did was head to his office to shed his coat. Upon his exit the office, Jack was met with the warm smile of Ianto Jones, who was carrying a tray that was holding five cups of hot coffee.

"Ahh, Ianto." Jack said with a smile, taking one of the cups, "You are a mind reader! Thanks!"

"Pleasure, sir." Ianto replied back, moving on toward Tosh's station, which was were everyone else was huddled.

"Bout bloody time, tea-boy. I'm freakin' thirst here." Owen said with his usual snappiness toward Ianto. He almost made Ianto drop the tray he was holding when he all but grabbed one of the remaining four cups. His attitude, however, earned a swift kick from Tosh. Both Ianto and Gwen had to restrain themselves from laughing as Owen flinched and nearly spilled the scorching hot liquid on him. Quickly putting his cup down on the table, he reached down and rubbed his now sore leg. 

"Thanks, Ianto." Tosh told him, turning her attention back to Ianto as she politely took a cup. Gwen smiled at him as she took on of the two remaining cups. Taking the last cup, Ianto placed the empty tray under his arm and began to walk towards the stairs that headed to the kitchen area. He was stopped, however, when Jack turned his attention to him.

"Ianto, anything interesting happen while we were out?" He asked before taking another sip from his cup.

"Nothing out of the ordinary, sir." He replied, turning on the stairs to face Jack as he spoke. "No rift activity detected anywhere in the city. There was, however, a shipment of masonry tiles that was delivered to us."

"Masonry tiles? Sure you're not trying to redo the floors in the kitchen and bathroom tea-boy?" Owen retorted, this time making sure he was nowhere near Tosh or Gwen.

"They were actually delivered by mistake." Ianto said, ignoring Owen's remark. "I called the delivery company but they won't be able to be by until Monday afternoon to pick it up. I've moved the crates down here so they'd be safe and out of the way until then."

"Sound's good." Jack responded. After which, with one big gulp, he finished off his coffee and walked over and handed the empty cup to Ianto. Giving Jack a nod and a smile, he walked up the stairs towards the kitchen to take care of his errands before heading into the Tourist Center in just a matter of hours. Turning his attention to his team, he switched to business mode. "Okay, so what do we have and know?"

"Not much on either front." Gwen replied, turning to around to face the computer that was behind her. Quickly pressing a few keys on the keyboard, she pulled up information on the murder victim. "The victim's name was Adrian Thomas. Twenty-six years old, only child. Father died ten years ago in a car accident. His mother passed away three years later from cancer."

"The poor boy." Tosh said sympathetically. "All alone at nineteen. That couldn't have been easy."

"What information we have says Adrian got a job for the local delivery service." Gwen continued. "He spent the last few years trying to work his way through school."

"Any idea what provoked the attack?" Jack asked, walking to stand behind Gwen.

"None." She said grimly.

"Think it could be one of the sleepers?" Owen asked, placing his now empty coffee cup on the desk next to him. "We know from experience that if they feel threatened, they'll temporarily activate. The blade on the arm seems to point to them."

"That's what I thought at first, too." Jack replied. "But it was too clean of an attack. The last sleepers we dealt with usually made a bigger mess than that."

"Can't argue with that logic." Owen said, acknowledging Jack's point.

"This is all we've got for now." Tosh said, sorting through the information on the computer screen in front of her."

"Alight, lets do a little more digging. Find out anything and everything you can about the victim and the witnesses." Jack ordered. 

"Jack, are we sure this isn't just a natural case of random violence?" Owen asked, skeptical that this was even in their field of view. "I mean, couldn't it be a stoned punk who got a little happy with a giant blade?"

"Something just doesn't feel right with this." He told them. "So, let's get to work." With their assignment at hand, each member of the team set out to do what each of them did best.

* * *

High above the earth, the U.S.S. Apollo was in a geo-synchronous orbit over Cardiff. In the ship's armory, John was filling the strike team in on the details of the mission while attaching the last clip of his vest together.

"The modified ARGs will only get off about two shots before they're completely useless, so make them count." He explained. "As far as we know, we only have one replicator to deal with. Hopefully, this will be a simple as point and shoot." Watching John as he spoke to the four men as he moved about, Evan couldn't help but feel that this wasn't going to go as planned. As the strike team finished gearing up, Sheppard and Ronon walked over to Evan. 

"What's your take on this?" John asked him.

"Not a clue, sir. I had hoped that we'd seen the last of the replicators when we blew up Asuras." 

"You and me both." John replied.

"You know," Ronon began, turning towards Evan, "Sheppard thought you were playing a joke on him. Why is that?"

Evan couldn't help but laugh a little at that. "You want to explain it to him or should I?" He asked John. 

"You're just not gonna let that one incident go are you?"

"Let what go?" Ronon asked.

"Remember the joint mission to M3S-281? Where the villagers separated us into to pairs the night before we could meet the elders to discuss trade relations?" Evan asked.

"How could I forget?" Ronon said. "I got stuck with McKay. Wanted to kill him more than usual."

"Well, lucky me gets stuck with the funny man here. And since the shower was in a very small room joined to the main room, I had to leave my clothes on my bed so they wouldn't get soaked." Evan said as John began to smile. "Needless to say, when I went to take a shower, he decided to sprinkle the local version of itching powder in my boxers." At this point John was laughing so hard that he had tears in his eyes. Catching his breath, John set out to answer Ronon's questioning glance.

"What?! I thought it was baby powder. I didn't realize it would have the effect that it did."

"And you just thought that it would be a good idea to test it on me?" Evan asked. " I had one of the worst rashes in my life for the next three weeks."

"Well," John began, "from my understanding, Keller and a few nurses really enjoyed your visits at that time. Despite the fact, Evan couldn't help but smile. Then he turned to Ronon to deliver an unsettling fact.

"Be thankful, Ronon." He started.

"Why?"

"He really wanted it to be you he was stuck with."

"Good thing he didn't. I would have shot him." John's grin suddenly faded when Ronon said this.

"Look, lets just focus on the mission so Lorne can get back to his vacation." John said, trying to avoid the look he was getting from Ronon.

"And," Evan added, "plotting my revenge."

"Maybe this will be a simple case of shoot and clean up the dust and then you can resume your quest for a court martial." John said, throwing a grin back to Evan. Even with the positive attitudes, Evan couldn't help but think it wouldn't be as simple as it seemed. No sooner had these thoughts entered his mind there was a call over the internal communication systems.

_"Sheppard, this Ellis. You may want to come to the bridge. There's something you need to see."_

Throwing a glance to Evan and Ronon that indicated that he wanted them to follow him, the trio set off in the direction of the bridge. Once there, they found Ellis standing next to a console with one of the Apollo's onboard scientists. Upon their arrival on the bridge Ellis turned to them. "We were using the same methods of tracking like with the last replicator to try and get a fix on its location. What we found is rather disturbing." Ellis told them, motioning towards the screen. On it was a map of Cardiff, with not one, but five signals indicating replicators.

"Are you sure this is right?" John asked, the gravity of the new information making their simple plan a lot more complicated that what it already was.

"I've had these guys recalibrate the sensors three times before I called you. I'm sorry John but there's more than one."

"So what do we do now?" Ronon asked.

"From the way McKay explained it, the ARGs become useless because of the link between the replicators. If we can get the right angle, maybe we can take them out before we get our asses kicked."

"Sounds risky." Evan added. "Plus with all the variables, we don't know if we'll get that lucky."

"Nice that you're staying so positive, Major." John said, trying to stay focused but could see Evan's point. "Look, I know it's a long shot, but all things considered, it's all we've got. We'll have to be lucky." 

"So, when do we leave?" Ronon asked.

"Now."

"One more thing, Colonel. This is a highly populated area." Ellis said, indicating towards the screen. "You'll need to be a bit more covert than originally planned."

"Agreed." John said, "Find the nearest isolated area close to those coordinates. My team will leave in five minutes. Hopefully that'll be enough time for you to find a place to put us down." With that, John turn and headed back to the armory to relay the updated information to the strike team, Evan knew that this day was about to go from bad to worse.

* * *

Back in the Hub, the hours passed quickly due to the information search before morning had arrived. The team was now gathered in the conference room to share the collective information they had gathered on the case. As each took a seat, Tosh handed out folders that contained a copy of all the acquired data.

"Anything new to report on the victim?" Jack asked, leaning back in his chair, opening the folder.

"Nothing unusual." Gwen reported as she clicked the remote for the monitor on the wall. The information it displayed was the same as earlier. "So far, it just appears to be a case of 'Wrong place, wrong time.'"

"What about the two witnesses, the brothers?" He asked, leaning forward. "The Air Force Major seems to know more than he was letting on. And, he's kinda cute." Owen couldn't help but roll his eyes at jack's last comment. Gwen just ignored it and moved on, clicking the remote to change the screen.

"Major Evan Marcus Lorne, born 6th of May, 1978. He graduated from high school in 1996, joined the Air Force two years later when he was twenty. Other than that, there's nothing. Except that he quickly worked his way up to Major and that most of his work for the past seven years has been classified."

"Classified has never stopped us before." Jack told her, indicating he wanted more information.

"I've tried everything I could to find out more." Tosh started. "But whatever he's involved with, the Air Force is making every effort to make sure no one finds out. Even I couldn't hack into their systems."

"Wow." Jack responded. "What about the brother?"

"Andrew Jerrad Lorne was borne on the 15th of May one year later. Graduated in the top five percent of his high school class. He's here in Cardiff studying Art and Design at the University of Glamorgan."

"Kid's got good taste if he made his way here." Owen said, looking down at the copies before him.

"Let's keep tabs on the situation, especially the Major." Jack began, pushing his chair back to stand up. "Something doesn't feel right and I want to know what's going on before it happens." Nodding in acknowledgement, each member of the team left the conference room to begin on the added work that had been added to their load. On the way out, Gwen stepped beside Jack and looked at him with a smile.

"Are you sure you don't want surveillance on Major Lorne for other reasons, Jack?" All Jack could do was just look at her and return the smile, heading towards his office. 

Despite everything Torchwood officers had been trained for, nothing could have helped them anticipate that the situation at hand was about to hit closer to home than any of them wanted. Up above in the Tourist Center, Ianto sat quietly at his desk, flipping through a magazine that he had picked up from… well, he didn't even know where it came from. Perhaps someone who had came for information had left it there by accident. Not knowing how much longer he could keeps his eyes open from the boredom of the slow Saturday afternoon, Ianto's heart nearly jumped for joy when the door to the information center opened. Quickly closing the magazine, he sat upright on the stool he was on and turned his attention to the three men and one woman had had entered the small room.

"Hello." He said to them, putting on one of his best smiles. However the response he received back wasn't really what he expected. All four just glanced at him with a blank stare before one of the men stepped forward. Ianto noticed that the man, who was dressed in khaki pants, tan shirt and a light brown jacket, appeared to be holding what looked like a white PDA.

"The readings are coming from here. But I haven't determined the exact location yet." He said turning to another, slightly taller man. This one was wearing a black leather jacket, white shirt and jeans. Ianto couldn't place it but there was something about him that seemed familiar. In fact, this entire situation was beginning to bother him.

"Is there something I can help you with?" Ianto asked, trying make sense of what was going on.

"For now, be silent." The man in the leather jacket told him, quite rudely before turning his attention back to person he was standing next to. Suddenly, the small device began to beep rapidly.

"The signal is coming from below. But I don't understand why." As the man finished speaking, the woman, who had on a denim coat, an off-white top with tan pants, turned to her left and began to stare at the wall.

"Kalem." She said, speaking to the man in the leather jacket. "There is an entrance here. I can see the separations." Both she and Kalem began to walk towards the wall as she spoke, pointing out the separation plane as she did so. 

"Excellent work, Cyla." He told her as they stopped roughly five feet from the wall. Ianto began to panic as they moved closer towards where the secret passage was that allowed access to the Hub below. 

"That's nothing, just an old hole we had patched." Ianto said as he tried putting himself between the Cyla and Kalem and the wall. As he started to move, he was instantly stopped, as some kind of gun was place just mere inches from his face. Tracing his way from the gun, to the hand that was holding it, his eyes settled on the face of Kalem, who just stared at him with.

"You're lying. I can see your fear. You're hiding something. And it's only a matter of time before I figure out what." Kalem told him, not taking his eyes off of Ianto. Keeping the weapon trained on Ianto, Kalem turned his attention to the one holding the PDA. "Aeson?" 

"There's an entire complex below us." Aeson, as he had been identified, said. "This must be the access shaft behind this wall."

"Open it." Kalem said, turning back to Ianto.

"No." Was all that Ianto said. The next thing he knew, he was lying on the floor, the side of his face stinging and lip bleeding. Looking at his attacker, he saw that Kalem had swiftly turned the weapon and used the butt of it to send Ianto to the floor.

"Cyla," Kalem started with a slight smirk, "open it." Smiling, she pulled a weapon of similar design out of the pocket of her coat and fired. Shielding himself from the flying debris, Ianto glanced up after the smoke was clear. The result was a gaping hole in the wall that was still smoldering from the blast. "Bring him. He may be useful." Ianto's eyes filled with fear, for he knew that Kalem meant him.

* * *

In an alleyway next to Cardiff Bay, the strike team that consisted of John, Ronon, Evan and two marines beamed down, hoping that no one was nearby to see the bright glow of the transporter. After the matter stream had rematerialized, John motioned and the team walked out into the open; each one carrying an ARG that was hidden in various ways. Glancing back at the men, John was glad that me made the decision to have the other two marines on stand by. Five guys carrying briefcases and backpacks could be suspicious enough but to have seven would have definitely drawn unwanted attention. Looking at their surroundings, Evan couldn't help but stare in awe at the building they were near.

"Wow." He said, taking in the sights of the Millennium Centre and Roald Dahl Plass.

"What?" John asked, shifting his sunglasses upward to get a better look at the massive structure.

"This was where we were headed last night." Evan told him. "Guess I'll have to tell Drew I made it here after all. After moving his sunglasses back in place, John pulled the life signs detector he had brought, out of his pocket and switched it on.

"According to this, the replicators are this way." He said indicating the walkway next to the pier. After a short five-minute walk, they arrived at a dilapidated building with a door covered in newspaper clippings. John couldn't help but notice the small sign barely visible on the door amidst all the clippings. 

"Tourist Information." He read. "Wonder why the replicators would be here."

"Well, I doubt it's to find out where the best sightseeing locations in town are." Evan said smugly, giving John a slight grin. Rolling his eyes behind his sunglasses, he reached down and turned the knob, pushing the heavy door open. Instantly, the smell of smoke filled his nostrils as he quickly pulled his sunglasses off and started at the huge hole that was in the side of the wall. Instinctively, the team's military training kicked in. John and Evan took up a position on the left side of the hole as Ronon moved to the right side, while the marines knelt near one of the desks on the wall opposite of the hole.

"Looks like the party started without us." John said as each person removed their ARGs from their hiding places. Arming himself with both an ARG and his personal gun, Ronon leaned into hole and peered down the passage that was hidden behind the brick wall.

"You hear that?" He asked John, who leaned inward to hear what he was talking about.

"An alarm?"

"Sounds like it." Ronon replied, stepping fully into the hallway. "Sounds like its coming from underground."

"You two stay here." John told the marines as he followed Ronon. "Lorne, you're with me and Ronon." As the trio made their way down the corridor, John noticed a door at the end, which he could only guess was an elevator considering that there was nothing but water beyond the wall behind it. That and the fact that the detector was indicating five replicator signals were coming from directly below them. "You might be right about the underground thing, Ronon."

"Whaddya think?" Ronon asked as he pointed to a small panel next to the door. Contemplating the question, John turned his attention to the staircase that was directly beside them.

"Stairs." He replied. "Might give us a better chance of sneaking up on them." With that, they turned and descended the one hundred and five steps to the lower depths of the building. Halfway down, John could tell that they were on the right track, considering the wailing of the alarm they had heard was getting louder. Upon reaching the end of the stairway, John was greeted with a giant, cog-like door, which also looked like it had been hit by small rocket. Inching closer to the door, John could see a metal gate beyond the door, which had been mangled to an extent that he almost didn't know it was a gate had it not been for the bars that were somewhat remaining.

"Guess this is the right place." Evan whispered, moving to take a position on the right side, peering farther into the massive room that was laid out before them. Inside he could hear what sounded like voices, but he couldn't make out what any of them were saying because of the constant blare of the alarm. Looking at John, he motioned for Evan to enter. Rushing inward, he took cover behind the nearest desk he saw. Checking the area for immediate signs of activity and seeing none, he motioned for Ronon and John to enter, indicating it was clear. Thankfully with the alarm still going, it added an extra bit of cover as they moved to take a position behind another desk that was near by. From Evan's position, he could see someone's back on a catwalk one level above them. 

Glancing around he spotted a console that could provide adequate cover for all three men while giving them a good view of what was happening above them. Making John aware of it, he nodded in agreement with a mental understanding of what he meant. As they moved one by one to get behind the large console, a clear picture of what was happening came into view. On the one end closest to them was a group of four people, guns drawn at another group at the far end of the catwalk, who appeared to be young man with them who appeared to be out of place, judging from the suit he was wearing. John could only assume that the replicators were using him as a hostage. Instantly Evan recognized the figure standing at the group on the far end. It was the replicator from the previous night. Trying to focus on the group nearest to them, Evan's eyes widened as he also recognized the four with the guns.

"What is it?" John asked in a low whisper, catching the younger man's gaze.

"It's the Special Ops team from last night." He answered, equally as low.

"Small world." Ronon added.

"What do you want?!" Came the sudden loud voice of the leader of the Special Ops team. Slightly annoyed by the volume of the man's voice, the lead replicator turned his weapon towards a panel on the far side of the wall and fired it. The shot cause the panel to burst into flames, causing the alarm that was continuously blaring to suddenly become silent.

"Now, isn't that better?" The replicator asked with a smug look on his face. "You don't have to yell anymore."

"I'll ask you again?" Came the stern voice of the leader once again, not fazed at all by the sudden silence. "What do you want?"

"It's simple really." The replicator replied. "All we want is the shipment of materials you received. Give them to us and we'll let your friend here go."

"How about letting him and you might get to leave here alive." The leader said. The replicator just thought about the ultimatum and just smiled. "Do I amuse you?"

"No. You bore me beyond belief." The replicator responded before he turned and glanced down into the massive expanse below him. "You, on the other hand, Colonel Sheppard, do amuse me. I must say that I am rather disappointed in the length of time it took for you to get here." The only thing John could do was just stare at Ronon and Evan with confusion. How had he known they were there?

"What the hell is he talking about?" Came an English accent from one of the Special Ops team.

"You might as well stand up, Colonel." The replicator continued. "Along with Major Lorne and Ronon. We've known you were here ever since you entered the complex." 

'So much for the element of surprise.' John thought as he no choice but to surrender their location. One by one, they stood, ARGs drawn, trained on the replicators.

"Bloody hell!" Said the same English voice as before. "It's just a regular ol' jamboree in here today." Completely ignoring the remark, John managed to concentrate on the replicator that was continuously locked in his gaze. 

"Well, you know my name," he began, "it only seems fair to know yours."

"You may call me Kalem. And that's all you need to know at the moment." Kalem told him. "I was beginning to think you weren't going to show up at all. Especially after the nice performance I put on for the Major last night." Before Kalem could gloat any further, the young man that the replicators were holding hostage suddenly elbowed the replicator that was holding him and attempted to run. He didn't count on being tripped on piece of piping that was at his feet. Almost as fast as he had attempted his escape, he was on the floor. Recovering from the attack, the replicator aimed its weapon at the man's head, preparing to finish him off. Taking advantage of the distraction, John raised his ARG and fired, the energy wave it created hitting the replicator, causing it to collapse into a pile of metallic dust. The victory was short-lived, however, as Kalem reached down and grabbed the young man by his jacket and pulling him towards him, placing his gun right at the man's temple. "Big mistake, Colonel."

Evan couldn't help but notice the fear in the young man's eyes as he moved next to John, ARG trained on the nearest replicator. Not knowing what to make of what just happened, there was a outburst from one of the female's nearest to Evan's location.

"What the hell just happened?" She asked, confused at the destruction of the replicator.

"Enough!" Kalem bellowed. "It appears to be getting overcrowded in here." Moving with the hostage to the stairs that were near him, Kalem turned to face the man who had been constantly holding the gun on him. As soon as Kalem turned, the other man fired a shot strait at the replicator's head. But what happened next wasn't what he was hoping for. Instead of blood and loosening the grip on the hostage, Kalem just stood there, a smile on his face. His wound however was a large silver area that began close just as rapidly as it had appeared. That was an interesting sensation, my friend. But if you try something like that again, you'll deeply regret it." With that, he pushed the young man down the steps and towards the entrance, followed by the remaining two replicators who had their weapons aimed on the two teams as they turned to make their exit.

"Hold it!" John said as Kalem made it to the big door

"Don't worry Colonel." Kalem said without even looking back, "we'll be in touch." With that, the three replicators pushed their hostage through the door and into the elevator. Turning to follow, John was stopped by the leader of the Special Ops team.

"Wait a minute. Just who the hell are you and what do you have to do with this?" Agitated with the delay, John quickly turned to him and gave him a stern look.

"Look, do you really want to get into this now while your friend is being kidnapped?"

"Good point." He said as his team hurried down the stair, joining Evan and Ronon before heading towards the door. The joint rescue was halted however at the sight of a small device that was sitting in front of the elevator. Attached was a small screen that had numbers quickly counting down. Instinctively knowing what was about to happen, Evan, Ronon, and john immediately turned and began to push the others back away.

"Get back!" John yelled to them, but was over powered by the deafening explosion that rocked the room and flung everyone to the ground.

* * *

Okay the other notes I warned you about: 1) I used Kavan Smith actual birth month and day. I just made him eight years younger than what he his though. 2) The reason for the wording between Torchwood and Atlantis is because I was trying to go from the perspective of each chacter if that makes any sense to you 3) I was trying to get the geography of the Hub right. Any errors, please point them out to me. 4) Again, I know parts of this chapter drag on and on. Sorry about that. 5) I only named three of the four replicators that came into the hub because the fourth was the one that was dusted (for lack of a better term at that moment). Didn't really see any point in going into detail with his apparel and name if he was only gonna get scrapped. I think that is everything I needed to warn you about at the moment. If you point something else out, I'll give you an explaination on the next chapter (currently I'm typing this at 1:30 in the morning so my brain is 98 off. it's ready for bed and so am I!!) Enjoy and I hope you'll forgive me for this horrible excuse of a story and I'll try to update as soon as possible. Thanks!!

P.S.: At times, the editor wants to play tricks on me. Show me something was changed and then it wasn't. Just thought I might give you a heads up if something looks wacky, for example, is a two separate sections aren't divided and run together. I'll go back through everything and make changes to grammer, wording and all the other mistakes I've made along the way. So hopefully, this will be a decent lookin story by the end of it!!


	4. Chapter 4

Okay! Time for the rant! Sorry it's taken me so long to update. I didn't plan on it taking this long BUT, things happend. Also, I've had this kinda sorta finished for a while but I was going through and trying to edit some stuff. Then I had to edit the edits. And edit the edits of the edits. And so on. This chapter and the next was supposed to be one but it got a little out of hand and so I made it into two. **JUST A WARNING!! **No matter how much I'll go through and edit stuff, there will still be mistakes. I promise you that I'm going through and changing them. They might not show up on here anytime soon, but I just wanted to let you know that I am trying to improve. Another thing, I've also tried to get the geography right and that's took a little longer to research also. And as always, if you notice anything major that I've screwed up, PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO INFORM ME!! It is by you, the reader, that will help me become a better writer! I think that's all for now. If not, I'll leave you some more notes at the beginning of the next chapter!

* * *

Darkness. That's all there was. At least that how it seemed to be. Then Evan realized he had his eyes clenched tightly shut. Reluctantly, he forced himself to open them, to behold the world around him. Everything started out blurry, and then slowly the light began to focus as he lifted his head from the ground and he saw the disheveled mess that surrounded him. Mustering up the strength, Evan pushed himself up and onto his back and immediately regretted it. He didn't know what was worse: the ringing in his ears, the immense pain that coursed through his body, or not suspecting a trap from the start. Blinking a few times, Evan stared up and noticed for the first time how massive the interior of the underground complex truly was. As the ringing in his ears subsided, Evan pushed himself up into a sitting position, letting the wave of dizziness pass before trying anything further. Suddenly, the sound of painful moans filled his ears and he glanced over to see John lying a few feet away from him, partially buried beneath the rubble. "Colonel?" He called out to him. Pushing himself up, Evan completely ignored the pain than was screaming through him. Making his way to John, Evan began to clear away some of the debris that was covering his body and placed a hand on his shoulder as John began to push himself up. "Are you okay?"

"Just peachy!" He replied sarcastically. "Been through enough explosions that I'm fairly sure that I can survive them all." With Evan's help be stood completely up and looked around. "What about you?"

"Few scrapes and bruises but I should be fine." He replied, trying to wipe some dust out of his eyes. Resuming his visual sweep of the area he turned back to John. "At least the infrastructure is still intact."

"Low-yield explosive. Probably meant to keep us in here instead of killing us. Probably why they left it at the door. To seal us in." Suddenly, he began to glance frantically around the room. "Where's Ronon?" No sooner had he asked, Ronon shot out from beneath a pile of rubble as if it were nothing more than a layer of sand.

"I'm right here." He said with a smile. Staring down, he began to kick around some of the rocks and metal that littered the ground where he was just laying moments ago, like he was searching for something.

"What are you looking for?" John asked as he and Evan made their way over to him. Instantly, Ronon reached down and picked up his prized gun that was knocked loose from his hand during the explosion. "Right, your baby. Stupid question."

"What about these guys?" Ronon asked as he crouched down by one of the women who was lying the closest to him. Before he could check on her, however, another figure appeared from out of the rubble; the other team's leader. Shaking his head to get his bearings, he glanced over to Ronon, who was hovering over his unconscious teammate. Instantly, he had his gun drawn and pointed at Ronon's head.

"Hold it!" He ordered, inching over the rubble and debris towards them. "Back away from her SLOWY!" Cautiously, Ronon stood to his full height, eyeing the man with the gun.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Take it easy!" John said, holding his hands in the air to show that he was defenseless. "We're not here to hurt anybody."

"Yeah?" he asked skeptically. "Tell that to the guy you killed when you disintegrated him."

"Actually, he was never alive to begin with, so technically, he's not dead." Evan said, hands in the same position as John's.

"You know," the man began, attention turned to Evan, "I had a feeling you were more involved than you were letting on." Before he could say or do anything further, the woman who was next to Ronon began to stir. "Gwen?" he called out to her. "Gwen, you okay?" as her eyes fluttered open, she saw Ronon standing over her and suddenly, they were filled with fear. Pushing herself onto her feet, she slowly backed away from the giant man.

"Jack?" She asked.

"Check on Tosh and Owen." Jack told her. "I'll keep an eye on our guests here."

"We're fine." Came the same English voice Evan had heard earlier. Glancing over, he saw the pair stand from behind a desk, trying to brush themselves off.

"Wow." The woman, Tosh, said surveying the damage around her. "Well, nothing a little elbow grease won't fix."

"Now," Jack began, returning his full attention to the three men in front of him. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

"I'm Lt. Col. John Sheppard. Apparently you've already met Major Lorne. An this is Ronon Dex."

"Air Force?"

"Well, we are. He's not." John told him, indicating Ronon.

"So what's the idea of turning that poor bloke to dust?" Owen asked, taking up a position by Jack.

"It's a long story." John answered.

"How about starting from the beginning." Jack said, gun still raised and aimed at the trio.

"Jack!" Gwen interrupted before John could explain anything further. "What about Ianto?" Seeing that Jack really wasn't sure how to handle the situation next, he took the opportunity and spoke up.

"Look, we're not your enemy. And if we work together, we can probably help you get your friend back. So whaddya say about starting over?" He said sympathetically, holding out his hand. "Colonel John Sheppard."

Jack thought about it for a minute before re-holstering his gun and accepting John's hand and shaking it. "Captain Jack Harkness."

"Colonel!" Evan started, "what about our guys up top?" John immediately knew what he was getting at and activated his earpiece.

"Reed! Wessinger! Do you copy? Reed? Wessinger?" Not getting a response, he tired a different approach. "Apollo, this is Sheppard. I've lost contact with Reed and Wessinger. Can you get a fix on their signals?"

_"Affirmative." Came the voice of one of the Apollo's techs. "Colonel, we've got a lock and are transporting them to the infirmary."_

"Copy that." John replied, not liking the idea that was coming to mind.

"Tosh," Jack said as he turned to the Japanese woman, who was at one of the computer terminals. "I'm hoping that from the looks of things, the damage seems to be confined primarily at the main entrance. Try to get the systems back up."

"Already on it." She replied without removing her eyes from the screens. Sidestepping over the cluttered floor, John, Ronon and Evan moved to the computers to join everyone else. Watching as Tosh worked, Evan once again took in the surroundings before turning to Jack.

"So what exactly is this place? And just who are you people?" He asked, clearly confused about the situation.

"You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you." Jack said with a smile, looking back at the trio.

"You'd be surprised." John told him.

"Okay," Jack started, "Well, Cardiff is build on a rift in space and time and we are the ones who have to clean up after whatever makes its way through. But everyone calls us Torchwood for short. And this is our base of operations."

"What's left of it anyway." Gwen said, looking around at the mess.

"And I thought I'd heard everything while in Pegasus." Evan told John.

"Pegasus?" Owen asked. "What is that, some kind of night club you military types go to back in the States?"

"Actually," John said, "Pegasus, as in the Pegasus galaxy."

"As in where I'm from." Ronon chimed in. As he spoke, Tosh instantly stopped typing and just stared at Ronon, along with everyone else.

"You're an alien?" Gwen asked, trying to wrap her mind around the fact.

"Yeah, so?"

"How the bloody hell did you get here?" Owen asked, not really understanding. "We would've know if you came through the rift. And how did you end up with the Air Force?"

"I walked." Ronon said, smugly.

"Walked? From another galaxy? How is that even possible?"

"Another time Owen!" Tosh interrupted, "Jack! I've got a lock on Ianto's mobile."

"Where?!"

"A little over a block from here. Looks like the signal stationary for the moment. I think I can get…" As Tosh spoke however, an explosion from a nearby wall decorated a panel attached to it in a shower of sparks, causing the computer screen to black, along with the entire Hub. "Damn it!"

"What happened?" Ronon asked.

"The explosion must have wreaked havoc with the power." Tosh replied, searching the desk frantically in the dark for any method of lighting. It wasn't long before a bright beam of light pierced the darkness and partially flooded the room. Shining the light down to guide her, Tosh did her best to make her way to the burned out panel on the wall. Once there, she opened the cover in front of her and scanned the inside with her light. Within seconds or her reaching inside of the panel, a small amount light began to fill the once darkened interior. "At least emergency power still works."

"Can you remember the location of the signal before the computers went down?" Jack asked.

"It looked like it was near the intersection of James and Adelaide Streets."

"Okay, Gwen, you and Owen start trying to get main power back online. Tosh, as soon as you can…" Before Jack could finish his sentence, Tosh anticipated the rest as she scurried around the various consoles and panels

"Start pulling CCTV footage and try to track down any information that I can. Got it."

"Right. I'm going after Ianto." As Jack issued the orders, John reached down and picked up his ARG.

"I'm going with you. You'll need back up and since conventional weapons are useless, you're gonna need this." He said as he switched the weapon on. When Jack nodded with affirmation, he turned to Ronon and Evan. "Ronon, you and Lorne stay here and give them a hand with everything."

"Colonel." Evan started, making John turn back to him. "Be careful. There's a chance that the ARG may be useless now."

"Got it." He replied then turned to Jack. "I hate to be a downer here, but how exactly do you plan on getting out of here? Your front door just took a major beating."

"Well," Jack began as he walked to the column in the center of the room and stood on a stone slab in front of the massive water tower. "We take the back door." As John joined him on the slab, Jack flipped open a small device that was strapped to his wrist. Smiling at John's confused look, Jack pressed a button and the slab lurched upwards, slowly at first but then gained speed. As the lift gained altitude, John's face lit up like a child in a candy store.

"This is cool!" John exclaimed as the floor continued to fall farther from him. Halfway into the ascent, John glanced up to see a section of the ceiling open to reveal blue sky above them. Within seconds, the lift was at ground level and came to a complete stop and John's reaction went from one of excitement to one of worry as he noticed all the people around.

"Don't worry, they can't see you." Jack said. "Well, they sorta can but you don't register to them."

"How is that possible?"

"The simplest explanation is this: this spot has a perception filter. You go unnoticed until you step off the lift."

"Neat little trick. Which way?" Getting his bearings, Jack motioned towards the east and the duo headed off at a fast run. Aside from dodging the moving cars, the trip didn't take long. However, upon arrival at the intersection Jack was greatly disappointed at not finding what he was expecting. As a matter of fact, he wasn't even sure what he was hoping to find. Before the desperation could full set in, there was a beep in his ear.

_"Jack, come in!"_

"Go ahead Tosh."

_"We've got main power back up and the other systems will be up within minutes."_

"Wow, that was fast."

_"Thankfully Major Lorne is quite handy around computers and electrical systems."_

"Tosh listen, I need an update for Ianto's signal."

_"Give me a second and… According to the tracer, you're right on top of the signal."_

"What? That can't be right. I don't see him!" Scanning the area even more intensely, John immediately found the source roughly three feet away from them.

"Hey. Over here." Walking over, John bent down and picked up the mobile that was lying on the ground, partially shattered. Not liking the implications, Jack activated his earpiece to relay the news.

"Tosh. We've got his phone but that's all. We're heading back."

_"Understood."_ Not knowing how to proceed, Jack and John began making their way back towards the Hub.

* * *

Sounds began to fill his ears; quiet at first then they slowly got louder. Forcing open his eye's Ianto winced in pain at the throb that shot through his head from the lighting overhead. Immediately, he began to panic as the recent events started to run through his mind. Pushing himself into a standing position, Ianto placed a hand on the wall in front of him, trying get his balance. As his eyes focused better, he stared at disbelief at the writing in front of his face: TORCHWOOD.

'This can't be right.' He thought to himself. How could he be in the Hub when he had just been taken prisoner? He had been captured, right? Ianto was so indulged in his thoughts that he didn't hear the footsteps approaching from behind.

"Hey! You shouldn't be up!" Shocked from the stealthy approach, Ianto spun around quickly and was immediately falling backwards. Before he hit the floor, he was saved from the impact by a pair of strong arms. "See, for this reason exactly!" Looking up, Ianto was surprised to gaze into the eyes of Jack Harkness.

"Jack?" Ianto tried to sort through the confusion in his head, but his attempts were futile as the pain in his head increased. "What's going on? One minute I'm being held captive, the next I'm here."

"Wow, you're head must've gotten knocked around harder than we thought." Jack said with a laugh.

"What?"

"Owen was playing around with a new piece of alien tech which happened to be a weapon. Needless to say when it went off it hit a support beam that you happened to be walking under at the time."

"Which was a total accident." Came the voice of Owen, who had walked up behind Jack. "I didn't know what Harkness wanted to punish me for the worst, almost destroying the Hub or nearly killing his favorite toy."

"Anyway," Jack continued, "a piece fell off and hit you in the head. Then you landed face down in the water."

"How long was I out?" Ianto asked after taking a moment to let everything sink in.

"A little over nine hours." Owen told him, checking the back of Ianto's head. Ianto winced when Owen pressed on the side of his head. "Sorry. The swelling has gone down and I think the concussion isn't as bad as I originally thought. But I still want to run a couple of tests to be sure." Nodding, Ianto allowed himself to be pulled up and led towards the autopsy bay. As they passed the central column, Ianto noticed an unknown figure looming near the machinery inside. As the figured turned away to face the three, Ianto swore his heart stopped as he recognized him as the one who had taken hostage. Smiling, he walked towards Ianto.

"Ianto, how are you feeling?" He asked. Ianto was shocked that he now spoke with a Welch accent.

"Who is he?" Ianto asked backing away, the fear building inside of him. "And what is he doing to the rift manipulator?"

"Ianto this is David. He's been here with us for the past three weeks." Jack explained, more worried than confused.

"Maybe I was a little off in my initial diagnosis." Owen told Jack, before turning to Ianto. "Ianto, you've been showing David the ropes ever since he showed up from UNIT."

"It's okay, Jack." 'David' said. "I know these type of injuries can be quite debilitating at times."

"Let's get you checked out, Tea boy." Owen said, reassuringly. Reluctantly, Ianto let himself be lead down into the autopsy bay, leaving Jack and David watching as the two headed off and disappeared down the steps.

For Ianto, the tests seemed to take forever to administer but in all actuality, it was just a matter of minutes. Watching as Owen scurried around, Ianto was trying to make sense of everything. How could his entire ordeal have been a dream? He was sure he felt the sting from when he was hit in the face. He could have sworn that his ears had heard the sound of a bullet fly past him and strike his abductor directly in the head. None of it made sense. He couldn't have imagined it because it was too bizarre, even for Torchwood. His thoughts however, were disrupted as the man who was going by David, came down the stairs. Smiling, he came over to stand beside Ianto, who was a little relaxed, but still very tense.

"How are you feeling?" He asked.

"Better, thanks." Ianto replied harshly, pushing himself up a little farther on the gurney he was sitting on.

"Are you sure? Earlier you were ecstatic about me being here but now, you see apprehensive." Realizing that he was being a bit insensitive, Ianto immediately regretted how he was sounding.

"Sorry. I guess that because I was with you before the… accident, my mind used you as a way to sort out the pain. Needless to say, you weren't very nice."

"Well, I assure you, none of that was real." David laughed. "So, before you decided to take a nap, you were trying to tell me about the Rift Manipulator? You told me what it's called but other than that, that's all I know."

"Right." Ianto began, trying desperately to remember events from before. "Well, as you know, there is a rift through space and time that runs through Cardiff. That device allows us to open the rift. But it's only used in extreme emergencies." As he explained, Owen walked over from a nearby table with a small device in his hand and an unhappy look on his face. "Owen, What's wrong?"

"Unfortunately, the last test didn't turn out the way I wanted." He sighed. "So we're going to try a different approach. This little baby here should help with the swelling and the pain."

"What do you need me to do?"

"Just sit back and let me work my magic. All I need to do is attach this to your forehead and that's it." Nodding, Ianto moved into a more comfortable sitting position as Owen pressed the small buttons on the front of the device he was holding. Once he was ready, he turned to face Ianto. "There'll be a small amount of pain at first but it'll ease off."

Indicating that he was ready, Owen pressed the apparatus against Ianto's forehead. Within seconds there was a sharp, shrilling noise that rang in Ianto's ears. Not only that, the pain in his head seemed to intensify greatly. Remembering that Owen said there would be pain, Ianto tried to bear with it. However, the pain only seemed to get worse instead of better. Only a moment after the mechanism had started working, Ianto's head felt like it was about to explode. Trying to reach up to remove the device, Ianto found that he couldn't move.

"Owen!" Ianto called out, but no one came. "OWEN!!" His attempts were futile, as Owen didn't respond. Second by second, the pain only got worse, so much at one point Ianto thought he was about to pass out. Just when he thought he couldn't take anymore, a figure stepped in front of him. Mustering the strength, Ianto looked up to see David standing a foot away from him with a malicious grin painted on his face. "Help me."

"Now why would I do that?" He asked. Ianto was shocked to hear that the Welch accent had disappeared and was replaced with an American drawl. Fear began to mix with the pain as Ianto tried to back away but was still stuck in place. "Struggle all you wish, your efforts are in vain."

"Why?" Ianto asked through clenched teeth, as the pain leveled off.

"Your mind was easy to manipulate. It was so simple to learn what I needed from you. So simple that it was pathetic. You didn't even try to fight me. And now, I have more important matters to deal with."

With one final wave of pain, Ianto's vision blurred into a bright white before it cleared up. When it finally did, he was staring up at the one who had taken him captive. He yelled in immense pain as 'David' pulled his hand out of Ianto's forehead. As his hand fully withdrew, Ianto collapsed to the floor of wherever he was. Glancing up, the last thing he saw before plunging into darkness, was the sinister smile of 'David'.


	5. Chapter 5

Nothing Major report (especially considering chapters four and five are coming up at the same time ). Anyway, more to come soon (hopefully) and maybe even the start of another Evan Lorne centered fic! Later to all!

* * *

After a minor cleanup job in the Hub, everyone was sitting at the conference room table, a jar of metallic dust sitting in the center.

"So. Does anyone feel like explaining what's going on?" Owen asked, staring at the jar.

"Well," John started, "The simplest explanation is this: we work for a branch of the Air Force that deals with alien activities called the Stargate Program."

"Stargate? Sounds more like a video game." Gwen said, trying to understand what was being said. "What exactly is the Stargate Program?"

"The Stargate is a piece of alien technology that looks like a giant ring. We use it to travel to other worlds in this galaxy and in the Pegasus Galaxy."

"With everything I've been through, all that I've seen," Jack began, "I've never heard of anything that sounds remotely like this Stargate thing."

"This is all very interesting but how does it fit in with this pile of dust?" Owen asked skeptically.

"Four years ago," Evan started, "the program came across the greatest discovery in all of mankind. The city of Atlantis."

"Atlantis?" Tosh asked. "But that city was just a myth."

"Not so much." John added.

"Anyway, a little over a year ago," Evan continued, "we discovered a failed experiment conducted by the city's former inhabitants. They tried to develop specialized nanites to fight a powerful enemy. However the machines began to interact in an unpredicted way. Soon they took the form of their creators."

"And this is what we are looking at here?" Gwen asked, pointing to the jar.

"No, not exactly." John answered. "We called these machines replicators, because they were similar to a group of machines that plagued this galaxy a while back. When the Ancients, Atlantis' occupants, figured out they couldn't control their weapon, they decided to level everything on the planet where the experiment was being conducted. However, a few nanites survived and began replicating themselves. Once they had enough numbers, they rebuilt their civilization, mimicking the ones that had tried to destroy them. Not only that, the replicators vowed revenge against the Ancients and humans."

"So what your saying is, that this pile of dust is an alien robot from another galaxy? Bent on the destruction of all humanity?" Owen asked, looking up from the contents of the jar.

"Yes and no." Evan responded. "We managed to destroy the entire replicator planet. This time, completely wiping out all traces of every single nanite cell. So we believe that these replicators were created on Earth."

"I've got to admit, this is a new one on me." Jack said as he sat back in his chair, taking in what he had just heard. "Tosh, where are we with the CCTV footage?"

Putting on her glasses, Tosh opened a folder in front of her and passed out a set of papers to everyone at the table. "The only reliable footage we could find was a black van leaving the area in a really big hurry. There wasn't a license plate visible, so tracing the van isn't going to be possible. But we can assume that these Replicator things were driving it."

"As if a Replicator wasn't bad enough, but a Replicator that can drive? Just when you thought it was partially safe to drive down the road." John said as he stared at the still photo that had been printed of the van.

"But why are they here?" Gwen asked, still trying to make sense of everything.

"We don't know. We were kinda hoping you'd know." John told her.

"All we know is that they barged in here, holding some type of gun to Ianto's head and demanding a shipment of some kind."

"Shipment? What shipment?" John asked.

"Don't know." Owen said, "We did however receive a shipment of some kind of masonry tiles by mistake."

"Masonry tiles?" Evan asked before turning to John. "Isn't that the code name for…"

"Neutronium?" John interrupted, completing his sentence. "Yeah it is."

"You guys wanna clue us in?" Jack asked, confused about what was developing.

"Neutronium is the main element in the construction of nanites." John explained. "You mind if we take a look at this shipment?"

"Yeah, it's in storage." Jack told them as everyone left the conference room and headed to the storage facility.

Within in minutes, all seven people were gathered around a medium sized, wooden crate. Glancing at it for a moment, John moved towards it and stood to one side of it.

"Ronon, give me a hand." As both men lifted the top off of the crate, the Torchwood team stared as four silver barrels were revealed inside.

"Those are the craziest looking tiles I've ever seen." Owen joked.

"So what's our next move, sir?" Evan asked, moving to stand beside John. After giving it some thought, John turned to face Jack.

"Can you guys set up a video link?"

"Yeah, but to where?" Jack asked, not sure what John was planning.

"Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado." John said then turned to Evan. "We need to let Stargate Command know what's going on. And the sooner the better because the longer it takes to figure out what we're gonna do, your friend's time is running out."

* * *

The floor was cold. That was the only thing he was sure of. That, and the fact that he couldn't move any muscle in his body because of the pain he was feeling. Opening his eyes, the sight of a grey ceiling was the first thing that filled his blurry vision. As the rest of his senses faded in and out, Ianto was sure he could hear footsteps near him. Gathering what strength he could, Ianto forced through the pain and tilted his head to the side in the direction that the noise was emanating from. Gazing over, Ianto barely registered the male figure staring at him. As the footsteps grew louder, Ianto realized that the face he was looking at was the one of his captor. Following the sound of the steps, a female shape appeared and stood next to the towering figure.

"Kalem. You've been observing him for some time now."

"He has been in and out consciousness many times."

"It appears he is partially conscious now."

"Yes. Is there a problem with that?"

"No. But I really do not see any reason to keep him alive."

"Was there a reason for your visit, Cyla, or did you just come here to berate me?" Kalem asked, beginning to become agitated.

"There was. I was reviewing the data. With the current resources at our disposal, the amount of power we are able to generate will not be sufficient enough to complete the mission within an acceptable range of time." Cyla told him.

"Are you certain?"

"I am." She reaffirmed. "I have, however been contemplating other alternatives. During a routine scan, the sensors have found something of great interest."

As she spoke, Ianto noticed that Cyla handed Kalem a computer tablet that she had brought with her. As he gazed at the screen, Kalem began to smile.

"Excellent." Kalem replied to her, handing back the tablet.

"I thought this would please you."

"Of course." He said, staring down at Ianto. "It appears that we have found a reason to keep him alive longer." As the two walked off, the only think Ianto could do was drift back into the darkness.

* * *

The Hub was bustling with energy as each person within set out with his or her specialized task. With the urgency of the situation, it didn't take long for the necessary modifications for a video link to be set up. As soon as the equipment was set up, the only thing that was left to do was hope that the connection would work.

"I've accessed the channel with the code you gave me." Tosh told John as she keyed in the last bit of computer code needed. "With any luck, we'll have a picture up as soon as you initiate the link."

"Thanks." He told her before adjusting the camera. Pressing the "Enter" key on the keyboard in front of him, John hoped that a plan could be formulated in time before anymore harm was done. "Stargate Command, this is Colonel John Sheppard, do you copy? Repeat, this is Colonel John Sheppard calling the SGC." After a few seconds of static, the image of General Hank Landry appeared on the screen.

_"Colonel Sheppard? This isn't a typical frequency used by one of our ships."_

"We're not on the Apollo, sir."

_"I can see that. However, you timed your communication perfectly. We're dialed in with Atlantis now. They were curious as to the progress of your mission."_

"That's why we're calling. We've figured out why the Replicators are here. They're after a shipment of Neutronium."

_"Neutronium?"_

"Yes sir."

_"How did Neutronium end up in the United Kingdom?"_

"As far as we can tell, a shipping error. But as to why there was a shipment in the first place is a mystery." As John was explaining, the screen suddenly turned to static before clearing back up.

_"Colonel? We're loosing signal."_

"General? General, can you hear me?" As he tried to continue the communication, the screen once again faded to static. Quickly turning to Tosh for answers, John was met with the sound of her fingers flying over the keys. "What's going on?"

"I… I don't know." She replied, trying to make sense of the mess on the computer. "It's like we're being hacked into." As she continued to type frantically, the sound of the static was replaced with silence.

"Colonel." This time it was Evan who spoke up. Glancing his way, John noticed Evan, along with everyone else, was staring at the computer screen. Turning, he noticed that the image of General Landry was replaced with that of the lead Replicator who had invaded the Torchwood Hub.

_"Colonel Sheppard. I hope I'm not interrupting anything important."_ Kalem sneered.

"What do you want?" John asked forcefully, taking a step back from the monitor.

"And where's Ianto?" Jack interjected, barely letting John finish speaking.

_"He's alive. For now. And what I want is very simple. I propose a trade: the Neutronium for the prisoner."_

"Here's a counter proposal," John began, "we take back our guy and we blow your nanite asses to hell and back."

_"Your sense of humor amazes me, Colonel. However, this is the arrangement. Take it or leave."_

"Fine." John gave in. "We'll make the trade."

"Colonel?" Evan chimed in, not quite sure about John's decision.

"I know what I'm doing Major."

"Where do you want to make the trade?" Jack asked, trying to hold back on his anger.

_"What better place than Trade Street? There you will find a partially constructed building. Be there in an hour. Except only three of you need to be there: Colonel Sheppard, Captain Harkness, and Major Lorne. If anyone else is there, your friend will be executed."_ As soon as the demands were made, the screen once again turned to static.

"I don't like it." Ronon spoke up after a minute.

"Neither do I but right now, it's the only way to go." Sighing, John turned to Jack to discuss how to proceed further. "We need a plan. Obviously they're not going to lead us to where they're holding your friend or that the whole faction is gonna show up."

"Meaning that we're gonna need a way track them to their base of operations."

"Right." Instantly, John came up with an idea and turned back to Evan. "Major, do you have an extra locator beacon with you?"

"With the rest of my gear in my bag." Evan said as he turned to get the backpack that had previously held his ARG. Unzipping it, he pulled out his jacket and his tactical vest. Reaching into one of the vest pockets, he pulled out a small black object and handed it to John.

"Okay, we don't have much time so let's get this show on the road." John said, as he pocketed the beacon and headed to the crate containing the Neutronium.

With the combined efforts, the loading of the Neutronium and the departure only took twenty minutes, leaving the remaining forty to be spent en route to the trade location. With Jack at the wheel of the Torchwood SUV, the trip took roughly thirty minutes to get from the Hub to the designated area. Finding the building was easy enough; the hard part was trying not to get caught in an elaborate trap that may have been set. Upon parking, John, Jack and Evan, got out and surveyed the surroundings. Glancing over to the entrance of the building, Evan noticed a hand truck that had apparently been left there for the unloading of the Neutronium.

After unloading, John and Jack scanned the area with guns drawn, leaving Evan with the job of pushing the Neutronium inside. Upon entering the first room of the construct, the trio was greeted with the booming voice of Kalem.

"That's far enough." Glancing into the doorway of the adjoining room, both men had their weapons focused on the Replicator. "I was beginning to give up on you. For a moment, I thought you might have decided not to go along with the trade."

"We held up our end of the bargain. Now it's your turn." John said, keeping his ARG trained on the dangerous machine.

"All in good time, Colonel." Kalem said, mockingly. "Now if you would be so kind, Major Lorne. Bring the Neutronium forward." Evan glanced over at John who nodded without taking his eyes off of Kalem.

Taking a deep breath, Evan began pushing the hand truck forward, crossing the threshold into the next room. When he was at least four feet away from Kalem, Evan stopped and began to back up, not wanting to take any chances by looking away from Kalem. As he did so, he began to worry when the Replicator just smiled at him. Once again reaching the threshold of the door, Evan was stopped by an invisible wall that had suddenly been erected. Locking eyes with Kalem, Evan didn't have time to react when the Replicator pulled out his weapon and shot him directly in the chest. As Evan collapsed, the silence was soon replaced with the sounds of a miniature war zone.

"What the hell?!" John shouted as he began to fire his ARG, along with Jack, who had also began to fire his gun. Both efforts were futile as the ammunition collided with the force field, not reaching the intended target. Giving up, John just glared at Kalem, who had a smug look on his face. "We had a deal. Why did you shoot Lorne?"

"Relax Colonel. The Major is only stunned." Kalem replied, as he pulled out a small PDA from his back pocket. "I have decided to alter the terms of our arrangement. Both Lorne and Jones will remain unharmed is you deliver one more item that we require."

"And what would that be?" Jack asked, his rage starting to shine through. "A coffin for your funeral?"

"Very funny, Captain." Kalem retorted. "What I require now, is the power module that you have in your possession. Deliver it, and the captives go free. Refuse… well I think you know what will happen. We'll be in touch."

As he spoke, Kalem walked to the unconscious Evan and reached down with one had to drag him across the room. With the other, he pressed a button on the PDA, which caused a large, metal door to slam shut over the threshold of the door. Rushing over, John and Jack tried desperately to pry open the door. After a minute of unsuccessful attempts, John had reached his breaking point.

"Back up." He ordered to Jack. Reaching around, he pulled out Ronon's gun and fired it at the door. After three shots, the reinforced door stood in shambles as the smoke from the weapon began to clear.

"Where'd you get that?" Jack asked as he holstered his gun.

"Ronon gave it to me before we left. And now I'm glad he did. Come on." Cautiously crossing over the now hot metal, both men entered the next room as fast as possible. It took everything John had to refrain from destroying the building out of anger, as he glanced around the room. Inside was empty, no Replicator, no Neutronium, and no Evan.

Oh! Just one more thing! I tried getting the characters' attitudes as close as possible. Please excuse me if I screwed up too badly! Hopefully you're really enjoying this if you've made it this far! Thanks!


	6. Chapter 6

Hey all. Yes, I'm adding a new chapter FINALLY!! Sorry it took so long. I TRULY apologize. BUT for all you Lorne/Kavan Smith fans, I actually had the chance to meet him this past weekend at the Stargate Convention in Cherry Hill New Jersey. Well onto the story.

BEFORE I FORGET: The last part is VERY horribly written. Sorry about that. It was giving me more trouble than I wanted. I tried to get it the best as possible but the bad result is below at the VERY END of this chapter. Just do me a favor to imagine that it's better than what it is and I'll try to make up for it in the next chapter (which I hope isn't going to take as long to get up as this one!) Here we go! Oh yeah, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE read my notes at the bottom. Thanks!

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Blinded by rage for walking into an obvious trap, John completely ignored all the near collisions caused by Jack's driving. Focusing on the facts he knew, John tried to piece together the ever-expanding puzzle laid out before them. For obvious reasons, it didn't take long to return to the Torchwood Hub. With the tires screeching to a halt on the pavement, Jack parked the SUV in front of the water tower that housed the invisible lift, not caring that the vehicle was left in plain sight. Stepping out, both men ignored the few stares they received due to the erratic driving of Jack Harkness. If not for the fact the he was in a really bad mood, John would have laughed at the reaction of a few bystanders when they turned back around to see that the two men had disappeared. Activating his wrist device, Jack engaged the lift into a descent back down into the Hub. As soon as they were below ground and the cover stone slid into place, John turned to Jack.

"What is that thing anyway?" he asked, indicating the device.

"Vortex manipulator." Jack replied, holding up his wrist. "Standard for all time agents. Well, ex-time agent in my case."

"Time agent? So you're…"

"Not from the 21st century?" Jack finished. "No the 51st."

"Wow. Any other interesting tidbits I should know about?"

"Well," Jack began, "I can't die. At least not permanently. Oh, and we have a pet pterodactyl." Before John could ask anything else, Jack added to his answer. "Long story. On both accounts. Think you're confused now, wait 'til you hear the explanations."

As the lift came to a stop, John looked around to find Ronon helping Gwen and Owen repair the metal frame that surrounded the main entrance. Stepping off the lift, jack proceeded to move behind Tosh, who was working at one of the nearby computer terminals, while John walked towards Ronon. As Gwen finished the welding, Ronon let go of the gate and turned to his commanding officer as he heard him approach.

"Sheppard? Where's Lorne?"

"An honored guest of our replicator friends." He replied running a hand through his hair.

"What about Ianto?" Gwen asked, removing the welding gloves she had on.

"No sign of him. all we go was another term for their release.

"Which was?" Owen asked.

"A power module. What ever that means." Jack spoke up from behind Tosh.

"You mean…" Ronon began but John finished.

"Yeah. A Z.P.M. By the way, here's your gun back."

"So what's the plan?" Ronon asked, taking the weapon. Before John could answer, however, Tosh spoke up.

"Colonel Sheppard? I have General Landry for you."

"Thanks Tosh." John replied as he moved behind the computer screen.

"Colonel. What's the status of the mission?"

"Not good, sir."

"What kind of trouble have you gotten yourself into now?" Came another familiar voice from off screen.

"Rodney?"

"Honestly Sheppard, why do you leave me behind on these really important missions when you know you're gonna need me?" Rodney asked in his standard, egotistically gloating fashion.

"Because you always end up cowering in fear or getting a splinter." John answered with a hint of sarcasm. "What are you doing at the SGC?"

"When we lost contact I asked Dr. McKay to gate back to Earth." General Landry answered. "During your absence we reconnected and Ms. Sato was kind enough to clue us in on what she knew. Mind filling in the rest?"

"Yes sir. But it's not good news."

Evan didn't know how long he'd been unconscious. All he knew was that he had the sensation that he was being dragged. Opening his eyes and lifting his head, Evan could see two replicators, one holding each of his arms, dragging him down a long corridor. Blinking to clear his blurred vision, he saw that the architecture looked eerily familiar.

A moment later, Evan was face down on the cold floor, his captors realizing he was conscious.

"Get up!" one of them ordered, and quite frankly, he didn't care which one. Groggily, Evan complied and pushed himself onto his feet. "Move!" This time, the order was reinforced with a weapon poked in his back, prodding him down the hall. After a few turns and another straight hallway, Evan found himself face to face with an Ancient holding cell. Stopping at the open door, he was once again met with a nudge to the back and stumbled into the empty cell. Turning to face the door, the two replicators, one he know recognized as Kalem, stepped aside to allow another person to be forced into the cell.

Noticing the style of clothing the other man was wearing, Evan immediately recognized him as Ianto, the one who was taken prisoner from Torchwood only hours earlier. Pausing at the entrance to the cell, the replicator pushed Ianto into the small room. Instinctively, Evan reached out to catch the other man before he crashed onto the floor. While helping Ianto regain his balance, he took in the sight of his ruffled clothes, guessing that Ianto hadn't received the best hospitality since arriving. Turning to face Kalem, both men were meet with a sinister sneer that sent shivers through their bodies. Working up the courage to confront their captors, Evan didn't get the chance to say anything before a female replicator arrived, a stern look on her face.

"Kalem, we have a problem."

"What now, Cyla?" he asked, rolling his eyes as he turned to face her. As Cyla stopped beside Kalem, she brushed a few dark stands of hair out of her face and reached into her back pocket and pulled out the locator.

"This was planted in the Neutronium shipment. No doubt an attempt to determine out location." Furious, Kalem returned his gaze to his prisoners before barking orders.

"Destroy the device. And engage the dampening field."

"Already done." Cyla said as she crushed the locator beacon with her bare hand. "The field was engaged as soon as we returned. However Colonel Sheppard and Torchwood may be able to determine our location for the telemetry they received before the signal was blocked." Stepping into the doorway of the holding cell, Kalem stared spitefully at Evan and Ianto before reaching behind his back.

"That," he began as he pulled Evan's gun from the waist of his pants, "was a grave mistake." Aiming the gun at Evan's head, Kalem contemplated his next move. After a few seconds that seemed to take years to pass, Kalem changed his aim and fired the weapon, hitting Ianto in his left thigh. Instantly, Ianto was on the floor clutching his injured leg. As Evan knelt to help apply pressure to the bleeding wound, he turned his head to face Kalem.

"Was that necessary?! I was the one you should've shot, not him. He didn't know anything about this."

"Necessary, no. But it was enjoyable. And I need you alive more than him." Kalem replied with a smirk as he replaced the gun and turned back to Cyla. "Begin the preparations. We may have to proceed earlier than scheduled."

As the replicators turned to exit, the door to the cell slid closed leaving the two prisoners completely helpless. As he watched them leave, Evan's gaze met with a pair of soft blue eyes of another female replicator who paused as the rest of the group proceeded down the corridor. After a moment, the young blonde woman turned to rejoin the group.

When they were completely alone, Evan returned his attention to the injured Ianto, removing his bloodstained hand away from his leg. Trying to examine the wound was a difficult job without making Ianto's pain even more unbearable.

"Easy. Easy." Evan coaxed as he tried to help Ianto relax the best he could. Applying a small amount of pressure to get him to lie flat, Evan adjusted himself so he could get a better glimpse of the bullet wound. "Sorry, but this isn't going to feel any better." He told Ianto and he ripped the area of his pants where the bullet hole was and started pressing around the injured flesh. "Doesn't look too serious. The wound is a through and through. Doesn't feel like the bullet hit any bone. But we've definitely got to stop the bleeding."

"Unfortunately I forgot my emergency shooting kit at home this morning." Ianto joked as he forced himself through the pain. Evan laughed at the dry humor and began thinking of ways to improvise with their situation.

"Hate to say that I left mine home too. I've got an idea but I'm going to need your tie."

"Go ahead. This suit is ruined anyway so a missing tie isn't going to matter much." He laughed, painfully.

"Well, when we get out of here, I promise that I'll buy you a new one. I'll even let you pick it out." Evan joked back, trying to keep Ianto's spirits up as he reached up and began to undo his tie.

"Sounds like a plan." He said as Evan untied the tie and began to pull it from around Ianto's neck. "You know, normally I'd be enjoying this a little bit more." Laughing, Evan reached up and tore off one of his sleeves and ripped it in half. Taking the two halves of the fabric and placing them at both ends of the wound track, Evan took Ianto's tie and wrapped it around his leg.

"Ready?" He asked before tightening the tie?

"Not really, but you'd better get on with it before I change my mind." Nodding, Evan took the two ends of the tie and tightened the makeshift bandage, grimacing as Ianto yelped in pain. After the intense wave passed, Ianto looked at Evan with tear filled eyes. "Looks like I owe you a shirt now." Smiling, Evan helped Ianto up into a sitting position, propping him against the nearby cell wall.

"You know," Evan began, trying to keep the mood up, "we haven't been officially introduced. Evan Lorne." With a slight smile, Ianto reached up and shook Evan's outstretched hand.

"Ianto Jones." Leaning his head back, Ianto stared at the ceiling and sighed. "So, you said something about getting out of here?"

"Yeah, I'm still working on that part." Evan said as he stood and fully took in the gravity of the situation.

"And that about covers it, sir." John said as he finished updating General Landry on the situation.

"So now they want a ZPM in exchange for the hostages. Unfortunately we have no way to accommodate them."

"But we have to do something!" Gwen exclaimed. "If not they'll kill both Ianto and Major Lorne."

"Sir, she's right. It's the only chance we have to figure this entire problem out." John said, backing Gwen.

"Colonel, you do realize that you're suggesting removing the only source of power from the outpost in Antarctica, which I may remind you, is our only defense against any enemy ships that decide to pay a visit to our cozy part of the galaxy." Thinking about this for a moment, John started to loose hope, before coming up with a solution.

"Sir, what about the Odyssey's ZPM? Isn't the ship in dry-dock for repairs?"

"Hmm. The Odyssey will be out of commission for about a week so the loss of power shouldn't be a problem for the repairs. That could work." Rodney said as he stood beside Landry. "If, of course, you approve that is." He added after receiving a stern look from the general.

"General, please. This may be our only chance." Tosh pleaded. After giving it some more thought, Landry nodded with his answer.

"Alright. But I'm sending Dr. McKay to tag along. He'll stop by the Odyssey and then he'll join up with you. Oh, and Colonel?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Try not to loose or damage our ZPM. Especially after all the trouble that we went through to get it. How long before you move out?"

Turning to Tosh, who immediately began working at her terminal, she looked up to the screen to face General Landry. "It'll take a few minutes to pull up the data from the tracker. After that we should be able to get under way. So I say about thirty minutes at the most."

"Very well. Dr. McKay is leaving as we speak and should be there shortly. Good luck Colonel, Captain. Bring our people home."

"Yes sir." As the transmission from Stargate Command ended, everyone set out to prepare for the impending rescue mission. With the checking of equipment and loading of weapons, it didn't take long before John's radio crackled to life.

"Sheppard, do you copy?" Clicking his earpiece at McKay's voice, John moved to a position to get better signal.

"Go ahead Rodney."

"I'm on the Odyssey with our special package. You ready for me?"

"Roger that." Clicking off his earpiece, John turned to the rest of the team, who were looking confused about the entire conversation.

"So, how long exactly is it going to take…" Owen began, before he was interrupted as a bright white light of a transporter beam filled the room. "Never mind."

"Nice transporter!" Jack exclaimed as he walked over to the new arrival.

"Thanks." Rodney said with a baffled look. Placing the box he was holding on a nearby desk and taking off his backpack, he returned his attention back to Jack. "And you are?"

"Captain Jack Harkness."

"Welcome to Torchwood, Rodney." John said as he walked over next to him.

"Hm. Nice place. However I do come bearing some interesting news."

"Like what?" John asked.

"Well, turns out that the IOA has been holding out on us. For the past six months, fourteen shipments of neutronium have been hijacked from vaious locations around the world. This recent one makes fifteen."

"So why didn't they tell us about it?" Ronon asked, trying to understand.

"Don't know. More than likely they wanted to try and clean the mess up themselves but we all know how that goes, don't we?"

"With that many shipments stolen, how much worse does that make the situation?" Gwen asked.

"Basically, things just went from worse to even worse." John said grimly.

"With that much neutronium," Rodney began, "we could be looking at an army of replicators."

"So what's in the box?" Owen asked, staring at the metalic case beside Rodney,

"This," John said opening the case and pulling out the crystalline shell of the Zero Point Module, "is hopefully what will help us get our friends back in one piece."

Sitting in silence within the cell, both Evan and Ianto were contemplating how to escape their inescapable prison.

"So, any progress on our escape plan yet?" Ianto asked, turning his head to look at Evan, who had his head propped agaisnt his knees. Sighing he looked up and faced Ianto.

"Unfortunately no. The only way out is with the control panel on the side of the cell."

"And we can't reach it because…?"

"The bars are reinforced by a forcefield and there's no way to reach it unless the field is dropped or the power goes out. And I don't see any of the two happeing anytime soon." No sooner had Evan said this, however, the forcefield that surrounded the cell lowered and the door opened. Shocked, both looked at the door with a sense hope. The hope was shortlived as two replicators made their way into the cell and took a menacing stance over the two.

"Get up!" the replicator on the left ordered. Complying Evan quickly got up and then helped Ianto to his feet, hoping to avoid anymore injury to the other man. As soon as both of them were on their feet, the two replicators stepped aside to make an opening. "Move."

Helping Ianto to walk, both did as they were told and began to head out into the cooridoor in front of them. A few minutes into the journey, Ianto couldn't help but wonder about their surroundings.

"This building design doesn't look familiar at all. Where do you think we are?"

"I don't think were in a building."

"Quiet!" One of the replicators barked, shoving the two to quicken their pace.

As they marched along in silence, the dread and worry began to build in Evan as the details of interior became more and more hauntingly familiar. Before long, the prisoners and their captors arrived at their destination. Directly infront of them was a door, marked slightly different than the others they had passed enroute. Evan had a good idea as to what was inside the room that lay before them. As one of the replicators moved to stand in front of them and activated the controls, Ianto's worry and confusion grew as the door opened and as he thought back to was he was told about not being in a building.

When the door was full open, the duo was meet with another forceful shove from behind and were prodded into the massive room. A feeling of awe began to mix with Ianto's worry as he gazed at the enormous windows that were lining the adjacent wall. Moving his eyes from the massive windows to the consoles directly infront of them, Ianto's fear grew a hundred fold as his eyes gazed upon the center of the room. Seated on a raised dias was Kalem, who smiled as the two were brought before him.

"Excuse the mess," Kalem gloated as he gripped a piece of metal pipe. "We weren't really expecting company so we didn't have time to clean up." Getting up and walking toward the captives, Kalem was joined by Cyla, who stood at his side.

"What do you want with us?" Ianto asked, trying to hide his fear. Moving directly infront of him, Kalem stared straight into Ianto's eyes, causing his fear to skyrocket.

"Information. And maybe a little bit of entertainment." He said, taking a few steps back.

"I hate to tell you this, but that's not going to happen." Evan said, the defiance strong in his voice. Rage beginning to take over, Kalem dropped the pipe and was immediately locking eyes with Evan. Without flinching or showing more fear than necessary, he stared back and could see the fire buring in the replicators eyes.

"As you're well aware, Major Lorne, we have ways of gathering information. Whether you volunteer it or not." Motioning for the two guards to approach, Evan and Ianto soon felt heavy sets of hands on their shoulders, pushing them to their knees. "Cyla, this one has knowledge of a device that may be able to aid us." He said, motioning to Ianto. "Gather what information you can."

Evan was powerless as he watched Cyla approach Ianto. Struggling against the hands that were holding him down, Ianto cringed and fought back a scream as Cyla plunged her hand into his forehead. While trying to overcome his own captors, Evan fought to help his new friend but was unable to do anything. With a smile, Kalem looked at down at Evan, as if to taunt him for being powerless.

"And now, your turn." With a sinister snarl, Kalem inched his hand closer and closer to Evan's forehead. Bracing for the inevitable pain, Evan used all of his determination to combat the agony that began to overtake him. Despite his best efforts, his focus began to shatter. Even Ianto's cries of anguish began to fade as his thoughts began to dissolve with every passing moment. Trying to focus what little will power he had left, Evan tried to pull together any thought's he could to help him resist the invasion into his mind. "Your resistance is impressive. But everyone has their breaking point, major. It's only a matter of time before I find yours. And I think I know just how to do that."

Withdrawing his hand, Kalem looked to another replicator that was behind the one restraining Evan. After a nod from Kalem, the third guard moved out of sight momentairly before returning, but not alone. Trying to control his irregular breathing caused by the torture, Evan realized what the other replicator had retrieved. At his feet lay another prisoner with a black, cloth-like bag over his head. "Remember major, you brought this on yourself." Kalem said as he pulled the new prisoner to his knees. Before removing the bag, Kalem looked to the replicator behind Evan. "Hold him."

Before he could really grasp what was about to happen, Evan felt the grip on his shoulders tighten even more. Returning his attention back to the new captive, Kalem removed the mask and smiled even more as Evan realized who the prisoner was. Beneath the dark cloth was the gagged and battered face of his younger brother. No sooner had his identity been revealed, Kalem took Evan's confiscated knife and held it against Drew's throat.

"Please, don't do this." Evan begged as tears began to fill his eyes upon seeing the sheer horror in his brother's eyes.

"It's too late major. You had your chance." Before Evan could say anything else, Kalem pulled the knife across Drew's throat. Wide-eyed with disbelief, Evan could only stare as the blood began to pour from the wound. With a shove, Kalem watched as the younger Lorne fell back to the floor as his life began to fade. Still struggling against the replicator Evan watched in horror as his eyes locked with his brother's eyes, before they rolled back in his head and he stopped moving.

"This can't be real. This ISN'T real." Evan said as he looked at his brother's lifeless body.

"Unfortunately for you major, this is real." Kalem said as he dipped his fingers into the pool of blood beneath Drew's corpse. Moving closer, Kalem had the audacity to smear the blood on Evan's cheek before leaning down to whisper in his ear. "And it could have been avoided if you would have just told me what I need to know." As Kalem walked away, the replicator restraining Evan released him and began to follow his leader. As he stared at the floor blankly Evan didn't even notice that he was no longer being held down. The feeling of emptyness only last for a moment before Evan was filled with what he thought was all the rage and anger in the world. Bounding to his feet, Evan lunged at Kalem, hoping to do somekind of damage, any kind of damage to the ruthless machine. Before he could land a punch, Kalem turned and struck Evan so hard he was thrown across the room. As he walked over to the stunned man, Kalem once again picked up the pipe he had discarded only moments before. Laughing, he began to once again gloat at the emotionally impared man before taking a stance over him.

"How noble of you. Trying to avenge his death. But you are not worth it." As Kalem once again began to walk away, Evan lept at him again. At the last moment,Kalem turned and Evan was hopful that he might be able to land a punch, only to be met with a sharp pain in his abdomen. Looking down, Evan stared at the source of his pain. The pipe Kalem had was now protruding from his stomach. With a glare of glee Kalem twisted the pipe while pushing it in even farther. Stumbling backwards to the floor from the loss of blood, Evan glanced at Kalem, who was leaning closer and closer to him. Before his focus faded into darkness, he tried to make out what he was saying. "And now, I have exactly what I need." As Evan began to lose conscienceness, a second searing pain shot through his head.

After a moment, he found himself staring up at the the replicators evil glare as he moved away. "Thank you major. You've been very helpful." With a swift kick to his head, Evan collapsed next to Ianto's body. Tears began to fall from his eyes as the guards started to drag the unconscious duo back to their cells. Watching in glee, Kalem turned and returned to his seat to set his plans into motion.

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Again, sorry for the crappy ending. Plans are in motion for it to get better, I PROMISE!! Just go easy one me with the reviews... pwease!! *sad puppy dog eyes* LOL. Eh, you know the drill: point out my screw ups so I can change on the original on my hard drive. P.S.: I know I have a major problem with name overkill. Trying to overcome that!! :D


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